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KING HENRY 



The Richard Mansfield 

Acting Version of 
KING HENRY V 




Copyright by 
ROSE & SANDS 



THE RICHARD MANSFIELD 
ACTING VERSION OF 

King Henry V 



A History in Five AEls 
by 

W SI Shakespeare 

Whi cb version was for the first time 

presented by M^ Rich 1 ? Mansfield 

& his Company of Players 

on the Stage of the 

Garden Theatre 

October 3^ 

M C M 



-\ ,lra<*.ne$l '-^^ 




NEW T R K : 

M C CLURE, PHILLIPS & C° 



M . 



C M . 



fcf 



I . 



1 



97011 



Littery of Congr«w 

V« i Ooe<Esj|CEivco 
DEC 31 1900 

«i Copyright entry 

SECOND COPY 

OoKvwgd to 
ORDER DIVISION 

jan 14 iqni 






Copyright, 1901, by 
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO. 



An 


INTRODUCTION 


By 


M R 


Mansfield 





"love interest? 



ENRY V. can hardly be termed a play 
— it is rather an Epic — or a chronicle, 
in a series of stirring scenes, of the in- 
vasion of France by the King of Eng- 
land and the wooing and betrothal of 
the Princess Katkerine. As the latter 
episode only occupies a portion of the 
last act, the work may be said to be 
lacking in what is technically termed 
But, on the other hand, the inducements 
that led me to produce Henry V. zvere a consideration 
of its healthy and virile tone fso diametrically in contrast 
to many of the performances now current J ; the nobility 
of its language, the breadth and power of which is not 
equalled by any living poet ; the lesson it teaches of God- 
liness, honour, loyalty, courage, cheerfulness and perse- 
verance ; its beneficial influence upon young and old ; the 
opportunity it affords for a pictorial representation of the 
costumes and armour, manners and cusfoms, of that inter- 
esting period, and perhaps a desire to prove that the 
American stage is, even under difficulties, quite able to 



(xi) 



An Introduction by Richard Mansfield 

hold its own artistically with the European, The ambi- 
tion of my stage career has been to prove the superiority 
of the American stage and the American actor, and I 
maintain that to-day against all those who- pretend the 
contrary. But perhaps I was influenced beyond any other 
reason by the desire to drag Henry V. out of a slough of 
false impressions that had materially affected his imper- 
sonation upon the stage. 'This role had for a long time 
been considered as requiring on the part of the actor 
nothing more than a healthy pair of lungs. Henry was 
not supposed to make any claims upon the intelligence or 
the heart of the artist. He fas an acting part J was 
supposed to be devoid of sentiment, finesse, variety and 
feeling. Let us see how far this is the case. The stu- 
dent who approaches the character of Henry with a view 
to impersonation, will consider him, in looking with my 
eyes, somewhat in this fashion : in the first act, in order 
not to disconnect the chain that still binds him to the 
Prince Hal of the preceding play, we must find him 
youthful, debonair, gracious and yet with a new-born 
kingliness and tact and state-craft, which even after the 
utterances of the archbishop, surprise and interest. In 
the subsequent scene, on the quay at Southampton, in the 
unmasking of the three traitors, Cambridge, Scroop, and 
Grey, and especially in his address to his former bosom 
friend, Scroop, we at once strike a note ofprofound mel- 
ancholy and pathos : " Thou that didst bear the key of all 
my counsels? Henry in his roystering days had come 
upon deceit and villainy and venality, but this was where 
he might naturally expect it; — here, for the first time, 
and in the very beginning of his reign, he stumbles upon 
treachery so hideous and lying so near to his heart, as 
may well have shaken his very soul. This awakening, 
his horror and his grief, cannot be expressed by mere 
noise. We next find him exhorting his soldiers in clarion 
tones, or depicting to the city-fathers of Harfleur in lurid 



An Introduction by Richard Mansfield 

colors f worthy of an actor, a poet and a painter J the 
horrors that would attend the pillage of their city. 

Tou will note that Henry is commencing to exhibit the 
many sides of a very versatile character, in the first act 
he was not at all what he was in the second, and now in 
the third zve have him again in two different rSles : first 
as the brilliant captain and magnetic leader of men, and 
then as a very wily and eloquent pleader, for he infuses 
such terror into the minds of the citizens that they are 
moved to surrender the town then and there, instead of 
protracting the siege — a course which might have been 
fatal to Henry. Indeed throughout this work we find 
Henry constantly swaying men by his reasoning and his 
powers of eloquence. He very rarely throws aside the 
mantle of the King and the manner of the good fellow and 
comrade, until the opportunity occurs in the fourth act. 
Here at last — alone at night by the camp-fire — he and his 
bosom debate awhile, and he is led to speak of the empti- 
ness of royalty and ceremony, tfhis speech, which ranks 
with the finest of Shakespeare's, is one which to-day is 
almost beyond the comprehension of the average man. 
Indeed it is interesting to observe that it is not much ap- 
plauded for the reason that it is spoken entirely from the 
point of view of a king — and kings happen to be in a 
minority as the world is constituted to-day. In this solil- 
oquy Henry refers to the fact that kings do not sleep as 
well as the wretched slave fthe working-man J '"''who 
with a body filVd and vacant mind gets him to rest, 
cramntd with distressful bread " — and furthermore says 
— that " such a wretch, winding up days with toil and 
nights with sleep, had the fore-hand and vantage of a 
king." As ninety-nine out of a hundred men sweat in 
the eye of Phcebus all day and wind up days of toil with 
nights of sleep, we cannot expect much sympathy from 
them for the lamentations of Henry. And we must re- 
member that when Shakespeare wrote, affairs were man- 

(xiii) 



An Introduction by Richard Mansfield 

aged very differently. Merchants were not princes then. 
Nobility and blood were everything. And a Gentleman 
made his fortune in the battle-field and by the grace of his 
sovereign. Again, the student, unless he is very careful 
in his interpretation, will run upon a rock in Henry's 
very beautiful prayer, " God of Battles" etc. My 
favourite stage motto is : " II faut excuser l'auteur " — 
by this I mean that, no matter how great the author, the 
actor must often disguise him and in a manner excuse 
him to his audience. If we come to consider this prayer 
of Henry's calmly, we find him reminding God of what 
he, Henry, has done to deserve His favour and promising 
to do something more if God will favour him upon that 
day. He tells God that he has five hundred poor in 
yearly pay and that he has built two chantries and he 
will do still more if God will help him to thrash the 
French, This was all then the custom of those times. It 
was child-like faith and simplicity. But the actor's fer- 
vour, intensity, and simple treatment of this prayer must go 
largely towards helping out the author to-day. The most 
popular speech with the audience is the "St. Crispin," 
because it is easily understood by everybody. 'There are 
no pitfalls here. It needs only a breezy, wholesome, and 
whole-hearted delivery. In the last act I recommend an 
earnest, manly wooing of Princess Katherine, as I recom- 
mend to everybody an earnest, manly wooing of anybody 
that anybody wants to woo. If the actor has a slight 
appreciation of humour, " tant mieux." 

Richard Mansfield. 




King Henry V 



A List of the Persons of the Play 

Together with the names of the Ladies and 

Gentlemen who impersonate them 

in the present production of 

King Henry V. 

King Henry V Mr Richard Mansfield 

The Duke o/"Gloster, brother of Henry V. . .Mr Ernest Warde 
The Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V . . Mr Malcolm Duncan 
The Duke of Clarence, brother of Henry V. .Mr B. W. Winter 

The Duke of Exeter, uncle of Henry V Mr John Malone 

The Duke of York, cousin of Henry V Mr Arthur Stanford 

fhe Earl ^Westmoreland Mr C. C. Quimby 

The Earl of Suffolk Mr E. H. Sheilds 

The Earl of Warwick Mr William Sorelle 

The Earl of Salisbury , Mr G. H. Davis 

The Earl of March Mr J. H. Lee 

The Earl of Cambridge . . ~) conspirators f . . . Mr C. H. Geldart 
Lord Scroop of Masham . > against < Mr Woodward Barrett 

Sir Thomas Grey j Henry V ( Mr F. C. Butler 

Archbishop ^/"Canterbury Mr John C. Dixon 

Bishop of Ely , Mr Salesbury Cash 

Lord Fanhope Mr J. F. Hussey 

Sir John Blount Mr W. J. Green 

Sir John Asheton Mr M. Hutchinson 

Sir John Mowbray Mr William Robbins 

Stanley Mr W. E. Peters 

' Mr James L. Carhart 
officers in Mr J. Palmer Collins 

Fluellen \ Henry V.'s < Mr A. G. Andrews 

Macmorris army Mr Chas. J. Edmonds 

Jamey J (_ Mr Augustine Duncan 

Williams, soldier in Henry V.'s army Mr Joseph Whiting 

Bates, soldier in Henry V.'s army Mr J. A. Wilkes 

Pistol "") soldiers in Henry V.'s C . . . Mr W. N. Griffith 

Nym v army, formerly servants \ . . Mr Wallace Jackson 

Bardolph . . . j to FalstafF ( . . . Mr B. W. Turner 

Boy, servant to above Miss Dorothy Chester 

English Herald Mr P. J. Rollow 

Charles the Sixth, King of France Mr Sheridan Block 

Lewis, the Dauphin of France Mr A. Berthelet 

(xvii) 



Sir Thomas Erpingham , 
Gower 



A List of the Persons of the PlaV 

The Duke of Burgundy Mr Mervyn Dallas 

The Duke of Orleans Mr Richard Sterling 

The Duke of Bourbon Mr Clement Toole 

The Constable of France Mr Prince Lloyd 

The Duke of Alencon Mr P. W. Thompson 

Lord Rambures Mr E. k H. Vincent 

Lord Grandpre Mr W. H. Brown 

Archbishop of Sens Mr J. E. Gordon 

Archbishop of Bourges Mr Bouic Clark 

Governor of Harfleur Mr Stanley Jessup 

Montjoy, French Herald Mr Edwin Brewster 

French Soldier Mr F. Gaillard 

French Messenger Mr Edwin L. Belden 

Chorus Miss Florence Kahn 

Isabel, Queen of France Miss Georgine Brandon 

Princess Katherine, daughter of Charles and 

Isabel Mile Ida Brassey 

Alice, lady attending Princess Katherine . . . Mile Susanne Santje 
Dame Quickly, a hostess, and Pistol's wife . . Miss Estelle Mortimer 

Civic and Ecclesiastical Dignitaries, Knights, Nobles, Pages, Ladies 
of the Court and other Attendants, Soldiers, Citizens, ^c. 




(xviii) 



ACT ONE 

of King Henry V 

The Prologue 
Rumour appears as Chorus (l) 
O for a muse of fire, that would ascend 
The brightest heaven of invention ! 
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, 
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene ! 
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, 
Assume the port (2) of Mars ; and, at his heels, 
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and 

fire > (3) 
Crouch for employment. 

Suppose, within the girdle of these walls 

Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies, 

Whose high upreared and abutting fronts 

The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder. 

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts; 

Into a thousand parts divide one man, 

And make imaginary puissance : 

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them 

Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth : 

For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings, 

Carry them here and there, jumping o'er times, 

Turning the accomplishment of many years 

Into an hour-glass ; for the which supply, 

Admit me Chorus to this history. 

C(i) Chorus is used only four times by Shakespeare : in King Henry V., 
Rumour ; in Romeo and Juliet ; in Winter's Tale, Time ; and in Timon 
of Athens, Gower. Though Shakespeare denominates " Rumour as 
Chorus " in King Henry V., Charles Kean departed from that character- 
ization and introduced "Clio, Muse of History, as Chorus," and other 
productions have borrowed the idea of " Father Time, as Chorus " from 
Winter's Tale. (2) That is, deportment, carriage. From the French 
portde. (3) Holinshed says that Henry V. declared to the people of 
Rouen "that the goddesse of battell, called Bellona, had three handmaid- 
ens, ever of necessitie attending upon her, as blood, fire, and famine." 



King Henry the Fifth 

The FIRST Scene 

{A Corridor in the Palace at Westminster) 

QEnter, from heft, the Archbishop of Canter- 
bury (i) and the Bishop ofEhy (2) 

Canterbury {Left Centre) 
My lord, I'll tell you ; that self bill is urg'd, 
Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign 
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd, 
But that the scambling (3) and unquiet time 
Did push it out of farther question. 

Ely {Right Centre) 
But how, my lord, shall we resist it now ? 

Canterbury 
It must be thought on. If it pass against us, 
We lose the better half of our possession ; 
For all the temporal lands which men devout 
By testament have given to the church 
Would they strip from us. Thus runs the bill. 

Ely 
This would drink deep. 

Canterbury 

'Twould drink the cup and all. 

Ely 
But what prevention ? 

Canterbury 

The king is full of grace and fair regard. 

Ely 
And a true lover of holy church. 

d,(i) Henry Chicheley, a Carthusian monk, recently promoted to that see. 
(2) John Fordham, consecrated 1388, died 1426. (3) Scrambling, ac- 
cording to Percy. The time when authority is unrespected, says Knight. 



Act One : The First Scene 

Canterbury 
The courses of his youth promis'd it not. 
The breath no sooner left his father's body,(i) 
But that his wildness, mortified in him, 
Seem'd to die too ; yea, at that very moment 
Consideration, like an angel, came 
And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him, 
Leaving his body as a paradise 
To envelope and contain celestial spirits. 

Ely 
We are blessed in the change. 
Canterbury 
Hear him but reason in divinity, 
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish 
You would desire the king were made a prelate : 
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, 
You would say it hath been all in all his study : 
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear 
A fearful battle rendered you in music : 
Turn him to any cause of policy, 
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, 
Familiar as his garter : that, when he speaks, 
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, 
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, 
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences ; 
So that the art and practic(2) part of life 
Must be the mistress to this theoric (3) : 
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it, 
Since his addiction was to courses vain, 
His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow, 
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports, 
And never noted in him any study, 

C(i) There is a theory among historians that Prince Hal assumed his 
wildness of the Boar's Head days to dissipate the jealousy and regicidal 
fears of his father, King Henry IV. (2) Practical. (3) Theory. 

(3) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Any retirement, any sequestration 
From open haunts and popularity. 

Ely 

The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, 
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best 
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality : 
And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation 
Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt, 
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, 
Unseen, yet crescive (1) in his faculty. 

Canterbury 

It must be so ; for miracles are ceas'd, 

And therefore we must needs admit the means 

How things are perfected. 

Ely 

But, my good lord, 
How now for mitigation of this bill 
Urg'd by the commons % Doth his majesty 
Incline to it, or no? 

Canterbury 

He seems indifferent, 
Or rather swaying more upon our part 
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us ; 
For I have made an offer to his majesty, — 
Upon our spiritual convocation 
And in regard of causes now in hand, 
Which I have open'd to his grace at large, 
As touching France, — to give a greater sum 
Than ever at one time the clergy yet 
Did to his predecessors part withal. 

C(i) Increasing. Only use of crescive by Shakespeare. 
(4) 



Act One : The First Scene 



Ely 
How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord ? 

Canterbury 

With good acceptance of his majesty; 

Save that there was not time enough to hear, 

As I perceiv'd his grace would fain have done, 

The severals and unhidden passages 

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms, 

And generally to the crown and seat of France 

Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather. 

Ely 

What was th' impediment that broke this off? 

Canterbury 

The French ambassador upon that instant 
Crav'd audience; and the hour, I think, is come, 
To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock % 

Ely 
It is. 

Canterbury (crossing to Right) 

Then we go in, to know his embassy, 
Which I could with a ready guess declare, 
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. 

Ely 

I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. 

(Exeunt Right.) 




King Henry the Fifth 

The SECOND Scene 

(The tf krone Room in the Palace at Westminster ; various 

Lords and ecclesiastics in attendance, Right 

and Left of throne?) 

{[Enter, from Left, King Henry, (i) Bedford, (2) 
Gloster, (3) Exeter (4) and Westmoreland, pre- 
ceded by Warwick bearing the crown of St. Edward, 
the bearers of the swords of State and Justice, a her- 
ald, (5) trumpeters, pages and attendants. The King 
ascends the throne. 

King Henry 
Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury '? 

Exeter 
Not here in presence. 

King Henry 
Send for him, good uncle. 

Westmoreland 
{Kneeling before throne?) Shall we call in the ambas- 
sador, my liege % 

C(i) Henry the V. of that name, and sone of Henry the IIIL, began his 
reygne over this realme of Englande ye xxi day of the moneth of Marche. 
* * * This man, before ye deth of his fader, applyed hym unto all 
vyce and insolency, and drewe unto hym all ryottours and wylde dysposed 
persones ; but after he was admytted to the rule of the lande, anone and 
sodaynly he became a newe man, and tourned all that rage and wyldnes 
into sobernesse and wyse sadnesse, and the vyce into constant vertue. — 
Fabyan. He was Duke of Lancaster and Earl of Chester and Derby. — 
Tyler. (2) John, Duke of Bedford, was the third son of King Henry 
IV., and his brother, Henry V., left to him the Regency of France. He 
died in the year 1435. This duke was accounted one of the best generals 
of the royal race of Plantagenet. (3) Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, was 
the fourth son of King Henry IV., and on the death of his brother, 
Henry V., became Regent of England. It is generally supposed he was 
strangled. His death took place in the year 1446. (4) Thomas Beaufort, 
Earl of Dorset, half brother to King Henry IV., hence uncle of Henry 
V. He was made Duke of Exeter after the Battle of Agincourt. Lord 
High Admiral. (5) William Burgess, herald, afterward Garter. 

(6) 



Act One: The Second Scene 



King Henry 
Not yet, my cousin ; we would be resolv'd, 
Before we hear him, of some things of weight 
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. 

QEnter,from Right, the Archbishop of Canterbury 
and the Bishop of Ely. tfhey kneel at right before throne. 

Canterbury 
God and his angels guard your sacred throne, 
And make you long become it. 

(Canterbury and Ely rk) 

King Henry 

Sure, we thank you, 
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed 
And justly and religiously unfold, 
Why the law Salique,(i) that they have in France, 
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim. 
And heaven forbid, my dear and faithful lord, 
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, 
Or nicely charge your understanding soul (2) 
With opening titles miscreate, (3) whose right 
Suits not in native colours with the truth; 
For God doth know how many now in health • 
Shall drop their blood in approbation 
Of what your reverence shall incite us to. 
Therefore take heed how you impawn(4) our person, 
How you awake our sleeping sword of war. 
We charge you, in the name of Heaven, take heed : 
For never two such kingdoms did contend 

C(i) According to this law no woman was permitted to govern or be a 
queen in her own right. The title was only allowed to the wife of the 
monarch. This law was imported from Germany by the warlike Franks. 
(2) The meaning of these two lines is given by Dr. Johnson : " Take 
heed, lest, by nice and subtle sophistry, you burthen your knowing soul, 
with the guilt of advancing a false title, or of maintaining, by specious 
fallacies, a claim which, if shown in its native and true colors, would 
appear to be false. " (3) Spurious. (4) Engage. 

(7) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Without much fall of blood ; whose guiltless drops 
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint, 
'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords 
That make such waste in brief mortality. 
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord ; 
For we will hear, note, and believe in heart 
That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd 
As pure as sin with baptism. 

Canterbury 

Then hear me, gracious sovereign; and you peers, 
That owe yourselves, your lives, and services, 
To this imperial throne. There is no bar 
To make against your highness' claim to France, 
But this, which they produce from Pharamond, — 
" No woman shall succeed in Salique land ; " 
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze(l) 
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond 
The founder of this law and female bar. 
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm 
That the land of Salique is in Germany, 
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe.(2) 

King Henry 

May I, with right and conscience, make this claim *? 

Canterbury 

The sin upon my head, dread sovereign ! 
For in the Book of Numbers(3) it is writ, — 
When the man dies, let the inheritance 
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord, 
Stand for your own ; unwind your bloody flag ; 
Look back into your mighty ancestors : 

C(i) Explain. (2) Floods, i.e., rivers. The Archbishop's speech in 
this scene, explaining King Henry's title to the crown of France, is 
closely copied from Holinshed's chronicle, page 545. (3) See Numbers 
xxvii. 8. 



Act One : The Second Scene 

Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's (1) 

tomb, 
From whom you claim ; invoke his warlike spirit, 
And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince ; 
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, 
Making defeat on the full power of France ; 
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill 
Stood smiling, to behold his lion's whelp 
Forage in blood of French nobility.(2) 

Ely 
Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, 
And with your puissant arm renew their feats. 
You are their heir, you sit upon their throne ; 
The blood and courage, that renowned them, 
Runs in your veins ; and my thrice-puissant lie*ge 
Is in the very May-morn of his youth, 
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises. 

Exeter 
Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth 
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, 
As did the former lions of your blood. 

Westmoreland 
They know your grace hath cause, and means and 

might : 
So hath your highness ; never king of England 
Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects ; 
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England, 
And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France. 

King Henry 

Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin. 

(Exit Herald and Trumpeters Right.) 
Now we are resolved ; and, by Heaven's help 

C(i) Edward III. (2) The allusion is to the battle of Cressy, fought 
August 25 th, 1346. 

(9) 



King Henry the Fifth 

And yours, the noble sinews of our power, 
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe, 
Or break it all to pieces ; there we'll sit, 
Ruling in large and ample empery(i) 
O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms, 
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, 
Tombless, with no remembrance over them. 
Either our history shall with full mouth 
Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave, 
Like Turkish mute, shall have a songless mouth, 
Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph. (2) 

{[The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop 

a/' Ely ascend the throne and sit either side of the King. 
'The attendants relieve them of their crosiers. 

{[Enter, from Right, the Archbishop of Bourges, the 
Constable of France and other French Ambassa- 
dors, (3) with attendants carrying a treasure chest, cov- 
ered with a velvet cloth sprinkled with fleur-de-lys. The 
bearers deposit the chest at the foot of the throne and re- 
tire Right. 

Now are we well prepared to know the pleasure 
Of our fair cousin Dauphin ; for, we hear, 
Your greeting is from him, not from the king. 

Bourges 
May't please your majesty to give us leave 
Freely to render what we have in charge ; 
Or shall we sparingly show you far off 
The Dauphin's meaning, and our embassy *? 

C.C 1 ) Kingdom, from empere, old French. (2) Perishable epitaph. 
(3) The charge of this Ambassade was committed unto the Erie of Ven- 
dosme to Mayster Bouratier, Archbyshop of Bourgues. * * * And the 
King, sitting under his cloth of Estate, the said Ambassador had accesse 
unto him. — Stow. Une ambassade composee des Comtes de Vendome 
et de Tancarville, de l'archeveque de Bourges, de l'eveque de Lisieux et 
d'aucuns autres du grand conseil. — Recordes de St. Denis, 6, xxxiv. 



Act One : The Second Scene 

King Henry 

We are no tyrant, but a Christian king ; 
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject 
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons : 
Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plainness 
Tell us the Dauphin's mind. 

Bourges 

Thus, then, in few. 
Your highness, lately sending into France, 
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right 
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third, 
In answer of which claim, the prince our master 
Says that you savour too much of your youth, (1) 
And bids you be advis'd there's nought in France 
That can be with a nimble galliard(2) won: 
You cannot revel into dukedoms there. 
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, 
This tun of treasure ; and, in lieu of this, 
Desires you, let the dukedoms that you claim 
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks. 

King Henry 
What treasure, uncle % 

^Exeter draws back the cloth disclosing a box of ten- 
nis-balls, tfhe discovery creates a sensation among the 
'English nobles. 

Exeter 
Tennis-balls, my liege ! 

King Henry 

We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us ; 
His present, and your pains, we thank you for. 

C(i) King Henry V. was born August 9, 1388. The campaign against 
France began in the summer of 141 5. Henry was then in his twenty- 
seventh year. (2) A French dance. 



King Henry the Fifth 

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, 
We will in France, by Heaven's grace, play a set 
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard : 
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a wrangler, 
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd 
With chaces.(i) And we understand him well, 
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days, 
Not measuring what use we made of them. 
We never valued this poor seat of England, 
And therefore, living hence, did give ourself 
To barbarous license ; as 't is ever common 
That men are merriest when they are from home. 
But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state, 
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness 
When I do rouse me in my throne of France : 
For that I have laid by my majesty 
And plodded like a man for working-days, 
But I will rise there with so full a glory 
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, 
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us. 
And tell the pleasant prince this mock of his 
Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones; (2) and his soul 
Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance 
That shall fly with them : for many a thousand widows 
Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands, 
Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down ; 
And some are yet ungotten and unborn 
That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. 
But this lies all within the will of God, 
To whom I do appeal; and in whose name, 
Tell you the Dauphin, I am coming on 
To venge me as I may, and to put forth 
My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause. 

C(i) The spot where a ball must fall in the game of tennis, beyond which 
the adversary must strike his ball to gain a point, or chace. (2) Cannon 
balls were at first made of stone. 



Act One : The Second Scene 

So, get you hence in peace ; and tell the Dauphin, 
His jest will savour but of shallow wit, 
When thousands weep, more than did laugh at it. 
Convey them with safe conduct. — Fare you well. 

{Exeunt Ambassadors and Attendants escorted 

by the English herald.) 

Exeter 

This was a merry message. 

King Henry 

We hope to make the sender blush at it. 
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour, 
That may give furtherance to our expedition. 
For we have now no thought in us but France ; (l ) 
Save those to God, that runs before our business. 
Therefore, let our proportions for these wars 
Be soon collected ; and all things thought upon, 
That may, with reasonable swiftness, add 
More feathers to our wings; for, Heaven before, 
We'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door. 
Therefore let every man now task his thought, 
That this fair action may on foot be brought. 

(^Tableau.) 

C(0 "About the middle of the year 1414, Henry V., influenced by the 
persuasions of Chichely, Archbishop of Canterbury, by the dying injunc- 
tions of his royal father, not to allow the kingdom to remain long at 
peace, or more probably by those feelings of ambition, which were no 
less natural to his age and character, than consonant with the manners of 
the time in which he lived, resolved to assert that claim to the crown of 
France which his great grandfather, King Edward the Third, had urged 
with such confidence and success." — Nicolas' 's History of the Battle of 
Agincourt. 




King 


H E 


nry the Fifth 




"The 


THIRD Scene 


(Exterior 


of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap, London) 


{[Enter from Right, 


Nym, and from heft, Bardolph. 



Bardolph 
Well met, Corporal Nym. 

Nym 
Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph. 

Bardolph 
What, are Ancient(i) Pistol and you friends yet? 

Nym 
For my part, I care not : I say little ; but when 
time shall serve, there shall be smiles ; but that shall 
be as it may. I dare not fight, but I will wink, and 
hold out mine iron. It is a simple one ; but what 
though ? It will toast cheese ; and it will endure 
cold as another man's sword will ; and there's an end. 

Bardolph 
I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends; and 
we'll be three sworn brothers to France ; let it be so, 
good Corporal Nym. 

Nym 
'Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the cer- 
tain of it ; and when I cannot live any longer, I will 
do as I may ; that is my rest, and that is the rendez- 
vous of it. 

Bardolph 

It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell 
Quickly : and, certainly, she did you wrong ; for you 
were troth-plight to her. 

C(l) Corruption of Ensign. 
(14) 



Act One : The Third Scene 

Nym 

I cannot tell ; things must be as they may ; men 
may sleep, and they may have their throats about 
them at that time ; and, some say, knives have edges. 
It must be as it may ; though patience be a tired 
mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. 
Well, I cannot tell. 

QEnter, from Left, Pistol and Dame Quickly. 

Bardolph 

Here comes Ancient Pistol, and his wife : — good 
corporal, be patient here. — How now, mine host 
Pistol? 

Pistol 

Base tike,(i) call'st thou me host"? 

Now, by this hand I swear, I scorn the term ; 

Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. 

(Nym and Pistol draw.} 

Quickly 

O well-a-day, Lady,(2) if he be not here. Now 
we shall see wilful adultery and murther committed. 
Good Lieutenant Bardolph — 

Bardolph 

Good corporal, offer nothing here. 

{Steps between them.) 

Nym 
Pish! 

Pistol 

Pish for thee, Iceland dog ! thou prick eared cur of 
Iceland ! 

C(i) Cur. (2) "Our blessed Lady," i.e., the Virgin Mary. 



King Henry the Fifth 

Quickly 

Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour and put up 
thy sword. 

Nym 

Wilt thou shog(i) off? I would have you solus. 

(Sheathing his sword.) 

Pistol 

Solus, egregious dog ? O viper vile ! 

The solus in thy most marvellous face ; 

The solus in thy teeth, and in thy throat, 

And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy (2) ; 

And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth ! 

I do retort the solus in thy bowels. 

Nym 

I am not Barbason (3), you cannot conjure me. I 
have an humour to knock you indifferently well. If 
you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with 
my rapier, as I may, in fair terms. And that's the 
humour of it. 

Pistol 

O braggart vile, and damned furious wight ! 
The grave doth gape, and doting death is near; 
Therefore exhale (4). (Pistol and Nym draw.) 

Bardolph 

Hear me, hear me what I say : — he that strikes 
the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am 
a soldier. (Draws.) 

CJO Nym's word for jog. — Schmidt. (2) Corruption of "par Dieu." 

(3) A demon. The unmeaning humour of Pistol's speech very naturally 
reminds Nym of the sounding nonsense uttered by conjurers. — Steevens. 

(4) The commentators are in doubt whether this means "draw your 
sword" or "die." Either makes sense — if it be necessary to make 
Pistol speak sense. — Rolfe. 



Act One : The Third Scene 

Pistol 

An oath of mickle might ; and fury shall abate. 

(Pistol sheathes sword.} 
Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give ; 
Thy spirits are most tall. 

Nym 
I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair 
terms ; that is the humour of it. 

(Nym sheathes sword.} 

{[Enter Boy from Left. 

Boy 

Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, — 
and you, hostess ; — he is very sick, and would to bed. 
Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and 
do the office of a warming pan. Faith he's very ill. 

Bardolph 
Away, you rogue. 

Ouickly 

<\* 

By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one 
of these days ; the king has killed his heart. Good 
husband, come home presently. 

(Exeunt Dame Quickly and Boy, Left.} 

Bardolph 
Come, shall I make you two friends % We must 
to France together ; — why, the devil, should we keep 
knives to cut one another's throats'? 

Pistol 
Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on. 

Nym 

You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at 
betting. 

(i7) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Pistol 
Base is the slave that pays, (l) 

Nym 
That now I will have ; that's the humour of it. 

Pistol 
As manhood shall compound : push home. 

CTkey draw.') 
Bardolph (draws) 
By this sword, he that makes the first thrust I'll kill 
him; by this sword, I will. 

Pistol 
Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. 

(Pistol sheathes sword.) 

Bardolph 
Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends : 
an thou wilt not, why, then be enemies with me 
too. Prithee, put up. 

Nym 
I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at bet- 
ting. (Nym sheathes sword.) 
Pistol 
A noble shalt thou have, and present pay ; 
And liquor likewise will I give thee ; 
And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood : 
I'll live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me. 
Is not this just ? — for I shall sutler be 
Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. 
Give me thy hand. (Offers hand.) 

Nym 
I shall have my noble '? 

C(i) A quotation from an old play, like much of Pistol's nonsense. 
— White. 

(7s) 



Act One : The Third Scene 

Pistol 
In cash most justly paid. 

Nym 

Well, then, that's the humour of it. 

(Takes Pistol's hand.) 

^Re-enter Dame Quickly from Left. 

Quickly 

As ever you came of women, come in quickly to 
Sir John. Ah, poor heart ! he is so shaked of a 
burning quotidian tertian,(i) that it is most lament- 
able to behold. Sweet men, come to him. 

(Exit Left.) 
Nym 

The king hath run bad humours on the knight; 
that's the even of it. 

Pistol 

Nym, thou hast spoke the right ; 

His heart is fracted(2) and corroborate. 

Nym 

The king is a good king; but it must be as it 
may: he passes some humours and careers. 

Pistol (going Left) 

Let us condole the knight; for lambkins we will 
live. (Exeunt Left.) 

Rumour appears as Chorus. 
Now all the youth of England are on fire, 
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies; 

C.(i) The dame jumbles together the quotidian fever, the paroxysms of 
which recurred daily, and the tertian, in which the period was three 
days. (2) Broken. 

(^9) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought 

Reigns solely in the breast of every man. 

They sell the pasture now to buy the horse, 

Following the mirror of all Christian kings, 

With winged heels, as English Mercuries. 

For now sits expectation in the air, 

And hides a sword, from hilts unto the point 

With crowns imperial, crowns and coronets, 

Promis'd to Harry and his followers. 

The French, advis'd by good intelligence 

Of this most dreadful preparation, 

Shake in their fear, and with pale policy 

Seek to divert the English purposes. 

O England ! model to thy inward greatness, 

Like little body with a mighty heart, 

What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do, 

Were all thy children kind and natural ! 

But see thy fault ! France hath in thee found out 

A nest of hollow bosoms which he fills 

With treacherous crowns; and three corrupted 

men, — 
One, Richard Earl of Cambridge ;(i) and the second, 
Henry, Lord Scroop(2) of Masham; and the third, 
Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland, — 
Have, for the guilt(3) of France (O guilt, indeed !) 
Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France; 
And by their hands this grace of kings(4) must die 
If hell and treason hold their promises, 
Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton 
The sum is paid ; the traitors are agreed ; 
The king is set from London ; and the scene 
Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton. 

C(i) Richard de Coningsbury, younger son of Edmund of Langley, 
Duke of York. He was father of Richard Duke of York, who was 
father of Edward IV. (2) Third husband of Joan Duchess of York, 
mother-in-law of Richard Earl of Cambridge. (3) The gold. (4) Com- 
plimentary sense, like "Mirror of all Christian Kings" above. 



Act One : The Fourth Scene 



The FOURTH Scene 



(I'he Quay at Southampton.) 



CExeter, Bedford, Gloster, Warwick, West- 
moreland, with other lords and attendants, azvait the 
King. Soldiers cross at rear. 

Bedford 
'Fore Heaven, his grace is bold, to trust these 
traitors.(i) 

Exeter 
They shall be apprehended by and by. 

Westmoreland 
How smooth and even they do bear themselves ! 
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, 
Crowned with faith and constant loyalty. 

Bedford 
The king hath note of all that they intend, 
By interception which they dream not of. (2) 

Exeter 
Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, (3) 
Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious 

favours, — 
That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell 
His sovereign's life to death and treachery ! 

C(i) His Men shipped, and the King himself ready to go on board: a 
conspiracy against his life is discovered, forged by Richard Earl of Cam- 
bridge, Henry Lord Scroope of Masham, the Lord Treasurer, and Sir 
Thomas Grey of Northumberland, who, being suborned by the French 
for a Million of Gold, as upon their apprehension they confessed (though 
their indictment contains other matter), were all three put to death ! which 
was no sooner performed but that the Wind blowing fair, King Henry 
weighs Anchor, and with a fleet of 160 ships sets sail on Lady Day, An. 
1414. — Sanford's Genealogical History of the Kings. (2) The Earl of 
March, of the house of Clarence, who was to be placed upon the throne 
by the conspiracy, informed the King. (3) This does not refer to any 
particular person. Bedfellow was common as a familiar appellation 
among the nobility in oldeu time. 

(21) 



King Henry the Fifth 

('Trumpets.) 

QEnter the King, Scroop, Grey, Cambridge and 

attendants from Left. 

■■ 

King Henry {Centre) 

Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. 

My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of 

Masham, 
And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts. 
Think you not, that the powers we bear with us 
Will cut their passage through the force of France; 
Doing the execution, and the act, 
For which we have in head assembled them ? 

Scroop (at Right Centre) 

No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best. 

King Henry 

I doubt not that : since we are well persuaded, 
We carry not a heart with us from hence 
That grows not in a fair consent with ours,(i) 
Nor leave not one behind that does not wish 
Success and conquest to attend on us. 

Cambridge (at Left Centre) 

Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd 
Than is your majesty ; there's not, I think, a subject 
That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness 
Under the sweet shade ot your government. 

Grey (near Scroop) 

True : those that were your father's enemies 
Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you 
With hearts create of duty and of zeal. 

C( T ) In friendly concord. 



Act One : The Fourth Scene 

King Henry 

We therefore have great cause of thankfulness ; 
And shall forget the office of our hand, 
Sooner than quittance of desert and merit, 
According to the weight and worthiness. 

Scroop 
So service shall with steeled sinews toil, 
And labour shall refresh itself with hope, 
To do your grace incessant services. 

King Henry 

We judge no less. — Uncle of Exeter 
Enlarge the man committed yesterday, 
That rail'd against our person ; we consider 
It was excess of wine that set him on ; 
And, on our more advice, we pardon him. 

Scroop 
That's mercy, but too much security : 
Let him be punished, sovereign ; lest example 
Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind. 

King Henry 
O, let us yet be merciful. 

Cambridge 
So may your highness, and yet punish too. 

Grey 

Sir, you show great mercy if you give him life, 
After the taste of much correction. 

King Henry 
Alas, your too much love and care of me 
Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch. 
If little faults proceeding on distemper,(i) 

C(i) Distempered, old meaning for having too much liquor. 

(S3) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye 

When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and di- 
gested, 

Appear before us ? — We'll yet enlarge that man, 

Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear 
care, 

And tender preservation of our person, 

Would have him punish'd. And now to our French 
causes : 

Who are the late commissioners ? 

Cambridge 
I one, my lord ; (Kneels?) 

Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. 

Scroop 
So did you me, my liege. {Kneels?) 

Grey 
And I, my royal sovereign. (Kneels?) 

King Henry (as he takes rolls of parchment from Exe- 
ter and hands to each of the three) 

Then, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, there is yours ; 
There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham ; and, sir 

knight, 
Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours : 
Read them ; and know, we know your worthiness. 
My Lord of Westmoreland and uncle Exeter, 
We will aboard to-night, — 

^fthe conspirators hopefully open their commission hut, 
reading, disclose their horror in their faces. 

Why, how now, gentlemen *? 

What see you in those papers, that you lose 

So much complexion ? — Look ye, how they change .! 



Act One : The Fourth Scene 

Their cheeks are paper.(i) — Why, what read you 

there, 
That hath so cowarded and chas'd your blood 
Out of appearance ? 

Cambridge 

I do confess my fault ; 
And do submit me to your highness' mercy. 

Grey and Scroop 
To which we all appeal. 

King Henry 
The mercy that was quick(2) in us but late, 
By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd : 
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy ; 
For your own reasons turn into your bosoms, 
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you. 
See you, my princes, and my noble peers, 
These English monsters ! My Lord of Cambridge 

here, — 
You know how apt our love was, to accord 
To furnish him with all appertinents 
Belonging to his honour ; and this man 
Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd, 
And sworn unto the practices of France, 
To kill us here in Hampton : to the which 
This knight, no less for bounty bound to us 
Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But O! 
What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop ; thou cruel, 
Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature ! 
Thou, that didst bear the key of all my counsels, 
That knew'st the very bottom of my soul, 
That almost mightst have coined me into gold, 
Wouldst thou have practis'd on me for thy use ; 
May it be possible, that foreign hire 

i ' ' ■ ■'■■■' 

CX 1 ) That is, white as paper. (2) Alive. 

(^5) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil, 

That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange, 

That, though the truth of it stands off as gross(i) 

As black from white, my eye will scarcely see it. 

Treason and murther ever kept together, k 

As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose, 

Working so grossly in a natural cause, 

That admiration did not whoop at them ; 

But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in 

Wonder to wait on treason and on murther : 

And whatsoever cunning fiend it was 

That wrought upon thee so preposterously 

Hath got the voice (2) in hell for excellence. 

All other devils that suggest by treasons 

Do botch and bungle up damnation 

With patches, colours, and with forms, being fetch'd 

From glistering semblances of piety; 

But he that temper'd(3) thee bade thee stand up, 

Gave thee no instance why thou should'st do treason, 

Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. 

If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus 

Should with his lion gait(4) walk the whole world, 

He might return to vasty Tartar back, 

And tell the legions, " I can never win 

A soul so easy as that Englishman's." 

O, how hast thou with jealousy infected 

The sweetness of affiance ! Show men dutiful ? 

Why, so didst thou : seem they grave and learned ? 

Why, so didst thou : come they of noble family? 

Why, so didst thou : seem they religious ? 

Why, so didst thou : or are they spare in diet, 

Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger, 

Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, 

C(i) Palpable. (2) Verdict, judgment. (3) Moulded, fashioned. (4) 
An allusion to the Devil going ' ' about like a lion, seeking whom he 
may devour." 

(2^3) * 



Act One : The Fourth Scene 

Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement, 
Not working with the eye without the ear, 
And but in purged judgment trusting neither"? 
Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem : 
And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot, 
To mark the full-fraught man and best indued 
With some suspicion. I will weep for thee 
For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like 
Another fall of man. — Their faults are open. 
Arrest them to the answer of the law ; 
And God acquit them of their practices ! 

(fturns away?) 

Exeter {as he touches the shoulder of each with his 
baton. Gower draws the sword of each.} 

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard 

Earl of Cambridge. 
I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry 

Lord Scroop of Masham. 
I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas 

Grey, knight, of Northumberland. 

Scroop 
Our purposes Heaven justly hath discover'd; 
And I repent my fault more than my death ; 
Which I beseech your highness to forgive, 
Although my body pay the price of it. 

Cambridge 
For me, — the gold of France did not seduce ; 
Although I did admit it as a motive, 
The sooner to effect what I intended.(i) 
But heaven be thanked for prevention; 
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice, 
Beseeching God and you, to pardon me. 

C(i) The confession of the Earl of Cambridge, and his supplication for 
mercy in his own handwriting, are in the British Museum. 



King Henry the Fifth 

Grey 
Never did faithful subject more rejoice 
At the discovery of most dangerous treason, 
Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself, - 
Prevented from a damned enterprise : 
My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign. 

King Henry 
Heav'n quit you in its mercy ! Hear your sentence. 
You have conspir'd against our royal person, 
Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers 
Received the golden earnest of our death, 
Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter, 
His princes and his peers to servitude, 
His subjects to oppression and contempt 
And his whole kingdom into desolation. 
Touching our person, seek we no revenge ;(i) 
But we our kingdom's safety must so tender, (2) 
Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws 
We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence, 
Poor miserable wretches, to your death : 
The taste whereof, God, of his mercy, give you 
Patience to endure, and true repentance 
Of all your dear offences ! — Bear them hence. 

(fturns up to the sea wall.) 

(Exeunt Conspirators Right, guarded?) 

(burning.) Now, lords, for France; the enterprise 

whereof 
Shall be to you, as us, like glorious. 
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war ; 
Since Heaven so graciously hath brought to light 

C(i) This speech is taken from Holinshed : — Revenge herein touching 
my person, though I seek not ; yet for the safeguard of my dear friends, 
and for due preservation of all sorts, I am by office to cause example to 
be showed ; get ye hence, therefore, you poor miserable wretches, to the 
receiving of your just reward, wherein God's majesty give you grace of 
His mercy, and repentance of your heinous offences." (2) Regard. 



Act One : The Fifth Scene 

This dangerous treason, lurking in our way, 
To hinder our beginnings. We doubt not now 
But every rub is smoothed on our way. 
Then, forth, dear countrymen ; let us deliver 
Our puissance into the hand of God, 
Cheerly to sea ; the signs of war advance : 
No king of England, if not king of France. 

(^Tableau.) 

"The FIFTH Scene 



(Exterior of the Boar's Head, Eastcheap, London) 

QEnter, from Left, Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, Dame 
Quickly and Boy, prepared for departure to the war. 

Hostess (to Pistol, as they enter, following the others) 
Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring thee 
to Staines. 

Pistol (Left) 

No; for my manly heart doth yearn (1). — 
Bardolph, be blithe : Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins : 
Boy, bristle thy courage up ; for FalstafF he is dead, 
And we must yearn therefore. 

Bardolph (Right) 

Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, 
either in heaven or in hell ! 

Hostess (Centre) 

Nay, sure, he's in Arthur's(2) bosom, if ever man 

went to Arthur's bosom. A' made a finer end, and 

went away an it had been any christom(3) child ; a' 

parted even just between twelve and one, even at 

C(i) Grieve, mourn. (2) Mrs. Quickly is not strong on Scripture. — 
Rolfe. She means Abraham's bosom. (3) A Quicklyism for chrisom, 
the white vesture put upon the child after baptism. 



King Henry the Fifth 

the turning o' the tide: (1) for after I saw him fumble 
with the sheets and play with flowers and smile upon 
his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way ; 
for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a'^ babbled of 
green fields. ' How now, Sir John ! ' quoth I : 
' what, man ! be o' good cheer.' So a' cried out 
' Lord, Lord, Lord ! ' three or four times. Now I, 
to comfort him, bid him a' should not think of God ; 
1 hoped there was no need to trouble himself with 
any such thoughts yet. So a' bade me lay more 
clothes on his feet : I put my hand into the bed and 
felt them, and they were as cold as any stone. 

Nym {Right Centre) 
They say he cried out of sack. 

Hostess 
Ay, that a' did. 

And of women. 



Bardolph 
Hostess 



Nay, that a' did not. 

Boy (Left Centre) 
Yes, that a' did ; and said they were devils incarnate. 
Hostess 
A' could never abide carnation ; 'twas a colour he 
never liked. 

Boy 
Do you not remember, a' saw a flea stick upon 
Bardolph's nose, and a' said it was a black soul burn- 
ing in hell-fire ? 

Bardolph 
Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire : 
that's all the riches I got in his service. 

C(i) Alluding to the old notion that nobody dies except at the ebb of 
the tide. 



Act One : The Fifth Scene 

Nym 

Shall we shog? the king will be gone from 
Southampton. 

Pistol 

Come, let's away. (Crosses to Centre.) — My love, 

give me thy lips. (Kisses Quickly.) 
Look to my chattels and my movables : 
Let senses rule ; ( l) the word is " Pitch and Pay : " 
Trust none ; 

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, 
And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck : 
Therefore, Caveto(2) be thy counsellor. 
Go, clear thy crystals. (3) — Yoke-fellows in arms, 
Let us to France ; like horse-leeches, my boys, 
To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck ! 

Boy 

And that's but unwholesome food, they say. 

Pistol 
Touch her soft mouth, and march. 

Bardolph 
Farewell, hostess. (Kisses her, then exit Right) 

Nym (approaches to kiss Quickly. Pistol inter- 
feres) 

I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it ; but, adieu. 

(Exit Right) 
Pistol 

Let housewifery appear : keep close, I thee command. 

Hostess 

Farewell ; adieu. (Exit Pistol Right, Quickly Left.) 

C(i) Let prudence govern you. (2) Take care. (3) Dry thine eyes. 

(30 



King Henry the Fifth 

Boy (Centre) 
As young as I am, I have observed these three 
swashers(i). I am boy to them all three : but all they 
three, though they would serve me, could not be 
man to me; for indeed, three such antics(2) do not 
amount to a man. For Bardolph, — he is white-liv- 
ered^), and red-faced; by the means whereof, a' faces 
it out, but fights not. For Pistol, — he hath a killing 
tongue, and a quiet sword; by the means whereof 
'a breaks words, and keeps whole weapons. For 
Nym, — he hath heard, that men of few words are 
the best men ; and therefore he scorns to say his 
prayers, lest 'a should be thought a coward : but his 
few bad words are matched with as few good deeds ; 
for 'a never broke any man's head, but his own, and 
that was against a post, when he was drunk. They 
will steal anything, and call it, — purchase. Bardolph 
stole a lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and sold it 
for three half-pence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn 
brothers in filching. (4); They would have me as 
familiar with men's pockets, as their gloves or their 
handkerchiefs : which makes much against my man- 
hood, if I should take from another's pocket, to put 
into mine ; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I 
must leave them, and seek some better service : their 
villainy goes against my weak stomach, and there- 
fore I must cast it up. (Exit Boy Right.) 



The End of the First Act 



C(i) Bullies. (2) Buffoons, fools. (3) Cowardly. (4) Grey suggests 
that Shakespeare took Nym's name from the old Anglo-Saxon word 
nim, to filch. 

IP) 



ACT TWO 

of King Henry V 

The FIRST Scene 

{A Room in the Palace of Charles the Sixth, atRoueii) 

^King Charles (l) seated at Centre, the Dauphin, (2) 
the Constable <?/" France, (3) the Dukes of Orleans 
and Bourbon from Centre to Left, Rambures and 
Grandpre and other lords on Right, with Pages on either 

side of the King. 

_■ . 

Charles 
Thus come the English with full power upon us ; 
And more than carefully it us concerns, 
To answer royally in our defences. 
Therefore the Dukes of Berry, and of Bretange, 
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth, — 
And you, prince Dauphin, — with all swift despatch, 
To line and new repair our towns of war, 
With men of courage, and with means defendant. 

Dauphin 
My most redoubted father, 
It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe : 

C(i) Charles VI., surnamed the Well-Beloved, was King of France dur- 
ing the most disastrous period of its history. He ascended the throne in 
1380, when only thirteen years of age. In 1385 he married Isabella of 
Bavaria, who was equally remarkable for her beauty and her depravity. 
The unfortunate king was subject to fits of insanity, which lasted for 
several months at a time. On the 21st of October, 1422, seven years 
after the battle of Agincourt, Charles VI. ended his unhappy life at the 
age of fifty-five, having reigned forty-two years. (2) Lewis, the Dauphin, 
was the eldest son of Charles VI. He was born 22d January, 1396, 
and died before his father, December 18, 141 5, in his twentieth year. 
History says : " Shortly after the Battle of Agincourt, either for melan- 
choly that he had for the loss, or by some sudden disease, Lewis, Dovphin 
of Viennois, heir apparent to the French king, departed this life without 
issue." (3) The Constable, Charles D'Albret, commanded the French 
army at the battle of Agincourt, and was slain on the field. 

(33) 



King Henry the Fifth 

But let us do it with no show of fear ; 

No, with no more, than if we heard that England 

Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance (l) ; 

For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd, 

Her sceptre so fantastically borne 

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, 

That fear attends her not. 

Constable 

O peace, prince Dauphin ! 
You are too much mistaken in this king : 
With what great state he heard our embassy, 
How well supplied with noble counsellors, 
How modest in exception, (2) and withal, 
How terrible in constant resolution, — 
Your grace shall find his vanities fore-spent (3) 
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, 
Covering discretion with a coat of folly. 

Dauphin 

Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable, 
But though we think it so, it is no matter : 
In case of defence, 'tis best to weigh 
The enemy more mighty than he seems. 

QEnter, from Right, Montjoy (4), zvho kneels at the 
King's feet. 

Montjoy 

Ambassadors from Harry, King of England, 
Do crave admittance to your majesty. 

C(i) An ancient dance in which the performers were dressed in grotesque 
costume, with bells, etc. Morris from morisco or moorish. — Douce. 
(2) Diffident and decent in making objections. (3) Past. Refers to his 
rakish days when Prince of Wales. (4) Mont-joie is the title of the prin- 
cipal King-at-arms in France, as Garter is in England. 

"134) 



Act Two : The First Scene 

French King 

We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring 
them. (Exit Montjoy, Right.) 

You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends. 

Dauphin 

Turn head, and stop pursuit : for coward dogs 
Most spend their mouths, (]) when what they seem 

to threaten 
Runs far before them. Good my sovereign, 
Take up the English short; and let them know 
Of what a monarchy you are the head : 
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin 
As self-neglecting 

^Re-enter, from Right, Montjoy, the English herald, 
the Duke of Exeter and English Lords ; they stand 
Right of King. 

French King 
From our brother of England '? 

Exeter 

From him ; and thus he greets your majesty. 

He wills you, in the name of Heaven, 

That you divest yourself and lay apart 

The borrow'd glories, that by gift of Heaven, 

By law of nature and of nations, 'long 

To him and to his heirs ; namely, the crown, 

And all the wide-stretched honours that pertain 

By custom and the ordinance of times 

Unto the crown of France. That you may know 

'Tis no sinister nor no awkward claim, 

Pick'd from the worm-holes of long vanish'd days, 

C(i) Bark. 
(3ST 



King Henry the Fifth 



Nor from the dust of long oblivion rak'd, 
He sends you this most memorable line (l), 

(Gives a paper to Montjoy who delivers it to the 

King.) 
In every branch truly demonstrative ; 
Willing you overlook this pedigree : 
And, when you find him evenly (2) deriv'd 
From his most fam'd of famous ancestors, 
Edward the Third, he bids you then resign 
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held 
From him the native and true challenger. 

French King 
Or else what follows ? 

Exeter 
Bloody constraint ; for if you hide the crown 
Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it : 
This is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message ; 
Unless the Dauphin be in presence here, 
To whom expressly I bring greeting too. 

French King 
For us, we will consider of this further ; 
To-morrow shall you bear our full intent 
Back to our brother of England. 

Dauphin 

For the Dauphin, 
I stand here for him. What to him from England ? 

Exeter 
Scorn and defiance ; slight regard, contempt. 
And anything that may not misbecome 
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at. 
Thus says the king: and, if your father's highness 

C(i) Pedigree. Exeter holds the document in his hand. (2) In a 
straight line. 



Act Two : The First Scene 



Do not, in grant of all demands at large, 
Sweeten the bitter mock (1) you sent his majesty, 
He'll call you to so hot an answer of it, 
That caves and womby vaultages of France 
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock 
In second accent of his ordinance (2). 

Dauphin 
Say, if my father render fair return, 
It is against my will ; for I desire 
Nothing but odds with England ; to that end, 
As matching to his youth and vanity, 
I did present him with those Paris balls. 

Exeter 
He'll make your Paris Louvre (3) shake for it. 

French King (rises') 
To-morrow shall you know our mind at full. 

Exeter 
Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king 
Come here to question our delay ; 
For he is footed (4) in this land already. 

French King 
You shall soon be despatch'd, with fair conditions. 
A night is but small breath, and little pause, 
To answer matters of this consequence. ('Tableau.') 

Rumour appears as Chorus 
Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies, 
In motion of no less celerity 

C(i) That is, the insult conveyed in the present of tennis balls in Act L, 
Scene 2. (2) Ordnance. The spelling is a concession to the rhythm. 

(3) According to some writers the ancient palace of the Louvre was built 
in the seventh century. What is now called the "Old Louvre" was 
begun in 1528 under Francis L, and completed by Henry II. in 1548. 

(4) That is, he has set foot, is landed. 

(3tT 



King Henry the Fifth 

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen 
The well appointed king at Hampton pier 
Embark his royalty; (1) and his brave fleet 
With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning. 
Play with your fancies ; and in them behold 
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing : 
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give 
To sounds confus'd : behold the threaden sails, 
Borne with the invisible and creeping wind, 
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea, 
Breasting the lofty surge : O, do but think 
You stand upon the rivage, (2) and behold 
A city on the inconstant billows dancing; 
For so appears this fleet majestical, 
Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow ! 
Grapple your minds to sternage (3) of this navy ; 
And leave your England, as dead midnight still, 
Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women, 
Either past or not arriv'd to pith and puissance : 
For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd 
With one appearing hair, that will not follow 
These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France % 
Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege : 
Behold the ordnance on their carriages, 
With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur, 
The nimble gunner 

With linstock (4) now the devilish cannon touches, 
And down goes all before them. 

C(i) The place where Henry's army was embarked, at Southampton, is 
now entirely covered with the sea, and called Westport. (2) Shore. (3) The 
stern, hence in the wake of this navy. Some read steerage. (4) The staff 
to which the match is fixed when the ordnance is fired. — Johnson. 




Act Two : The Second Scene 



"The SECOND Scene 



(T'ke English Entrenchment before Harflenr. King 
Henry and his army) 

King Henry 

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ; 

Or close the wall up with our English dead ! 

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man 

As modest stillness and humility : 

But when the blast of war blows in our ears, 

Then imitate the action of the tiger ; 

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 

Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage : 

Then lend the eye a terrible aspect ; 

Let it pry through the portage (l) of the head 

Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'erwhelm it, 

As fearfully as doth a galled rock 

O'erhang and jutty (2) his confounded (3) base, 

Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. 

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide ; 

Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 

To his full height ! — On, on, you nobless (4) Eng- 
lish, 

Whose blood is fet (5) from fathers of war-proof! 

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, 

Have in these parts from morn till even fought, 

And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument. 

Dishonour not your mothers ; now attest 

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you. 

Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 

And teach them how to war ! — And you, good yeo- 
men, 

C(i) Comparing the eyes to cannon prying through portholes. (2) 
Jutting, common term applied to land. (3) Confounded is said to have 
often the same meaning as destroyed. (4) The original of 1623 gives 
Noblish English. Some authorities give noblest. (5) Fetched. 

(39) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here 

The mettle of your pasture ; let us swear 

That you are worth your breeding : which I doubt 

not; 
For there is none of you so mean and base 
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. 
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips (1), 
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot ; 
Follow your spirit : and, upon this charge, 
Cry — " God for Harry ! England ! and Saint 

George ! " (^Tableau.) 

The THIRD Scene 



(tfhe Duke of Gloster's Quarters) 
QEnter, alarmedly, Nym, Bardolph, Pistol and Boy. 

Bardolph 
On, on, on, on, on ! to the breach, to the breach ! 

Nym 
'Pray thee, corporal, stay ; the knocks are too hot ; 
and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives : (2) 
the humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain- 
song (3) of it. 

Pistol 
The plain -song is most just; for humours do 
abound ; 

Knocks go and come ; our vassals drop and die ; 
And sword and shield, 
In bloody field, 
Doth win immortal fame. 

C,(i) Noose about the neck in which the dogs were held until started 
for the game. (2) Not merely one life but two or more lives. Figure 
drawn from a case of pistols or knives. (3) That is, with no variations. 

_- 



Act Two : The Third Scene 

Boy 

'Would I were in an alehouse in London! I 
would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety. 

Pistol 
And I: 

If wishes would prevail with me, 
My purpose should not fail with me, 
But thither I would hie. 

Boy 
As duly, but not as truly, 
As bird doth sing on bough. 
(Exeunt, each trying to push the other before, crying 

" On, on") 

QEnter, from Right, Gower and, from Left, Fluel- 
len(i). 

Gower (Right Centre) 
Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the 
mines ; the Duke of Gloster would speak with you. 

Fluellen (Left Centre) 
To the mines ! tell you the duke it is not so good 
Xo come to the mines : for, look you, the mines is not 
according to the disciplines of the war; the concavi- 
ties of it is not sufficient ; for, look you, th' athversars 
(you may discuss unto the duke, look you) is digged 
himself four yards under the countermines; by Saint 
Tavy, I think a' will plow up all, if there is not bet- 
ter directions. 

Gower 
The Duke of Gloster, to whom the order of the 

C(i) An approximation to the pronunciation of the frequently used 
Welsh name, Llewellyn. A soldierly pedant, in favour with Henry, who 
further on acknowledges his own Welsh blood. In the course of the 
scene Fluellen, a Welshman, Jamy, a Scotchman, and Macmorris, an 
Irishman, each speaks with his native inflection and dialect. 

(41) 



King Henry the Fifth 

siege is given, (l) is altogether directed by an Irish- 
man ; a very valiant gentleman, i' faith. 

Fluellen 
It is Captain Macmorris, is it not ? 

GOWER 

I think it be. 

Fluellen 

By Saint Tavy, he is an ass as in the 'orld : I will 
verify as much in his peard; he has no more direc- 
tions in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, of 
the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog. 

Gower (indicating off Left) 

Here 'a comes, and the Scots captain, Captain 
Jamy, with him. 

Fluellen 

Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman, 
that is certain ; and of great expedition and knowl- 
edge in the ancient wars, upon my particular knowl- 
edge of his directions : by Saint Tavy, he will main- 
tain his argument as well as any military man in the 
'orld in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the 
Romans. 

{[Enter, from Left, Macmorris and Jamy. 

Jamy (Left Centre) 
I say, gud-day, Captain Fluellen. 

Fluellen 
God-den to your worship, goot Captain Jamy. 

C(i) The Duke of Gloucester, to who the ordre of the assaulte was 
comitted, made thre mynes under the ground, and approached the walles 
with ordinaunce and engynes and would not suffer theim within to reste 
at any tyme — HalVs Chronicle. 



Act Two: The Third Scene 

GOWER 

How now, Captain Macmorris*? have you quit 
the mines'? have the pioneers given o'er? 

Macmorris {Left) 

By Saint Patrick, tish ill done : the work ish give 
over, the trumpet sound the retreat. By my hand 
I swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done; 
it ish give over ; I would have blowed up the town. 
O, tish ill done, tish ill done ; by my hand, tish ill 
done. 

Fluellen 

Captain Macmorris, I peseech you now, will you 
voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you, 
as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of 
the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument, 
look you, and friendly communication ? partly to 
satisfy my opinion, and partly for the satisfaction, 
look you, of my mind, as touching the direction of 
the military discipline ; that is the point. 

Jamy 
It sail be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath ; 
and I sail quit (\) you with gud leve, as I may 
pick occasion, that sail I, marry. 

Macmorris 
It is no time to discourse ; the day is hot, and the 
weather, and the wars, and the kings, and the dukes : 
it is no time to discourse. The town is beseeched, 
and the trumpet calls us to the breach ; and we 
talk, and s'death, do nothing ; 'tis shame for us all : 
by Saint Patrick, 'tis shame to stand still; it is 
shame, by my hand : and there is throats to be cut, 
and works to be done ; and there ish nothing done. 

C(i) Requite, that is, answer. 
(43) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Jamy 
By the mess, (1 ) ere these eyes of mine take them- 
selves to slumber, aile do gude service, or aile ligge 
i' the grund for it ; ay, or go to death ; and aile pay 
it as valorously as I may, that sail I surely do, that 
is the breff and the long. Marry, I wad full fain 
heard some question 'tween you tway. 

Fluellen 
Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under 
your correction, there is not many of your nation 

Macmorris 

Of my nation ? What ish my nation ? ish it a 
villain, and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal ? 
What ish my nation % Who talks of my nation ? 

Fluellen 

Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than 
is meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall 
think you do not use me with affability as in dis- 
cretion you ought to use me, look you ; being as 
goot a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of 
wars, and in the derivation of my birth, and in other 
particularities. 

Macmorris 

I do not know you so good a man as myself: 
s'blood, I will cut off your head. 

(Macmorris raises battle-axe. Jamy and Gower 

interfered) 
Gower 
Gentlemen, both, you will mistake each other. 
(A parley sounded on the trumpets?) 

<L(i) Mass. A common oath then. Used by King Henry later. 
(44) 



Act Two : The Fourth Scene 

GOWER 

The town sounds a parley. 

(Exeunt Gower and Jamy, Right. Fluellen and 
Macmorris cross to Right.) 

Fluellen 

Captain Macmorris, when there is more better 

opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so 

bold as to tell you, I know the disciplines of war ; 

and there is an end. (Exeunt Right.') 

The FOURTH Scene 



(The English Entrenchment at Harfleur) 

QAt Centre King Henry and at heft Centre his army ; 
the Governor of Harfleur (l) and attendants stand 
forward Right Front. 

King Henry 
How yet resolves the governor of the town ? 
This is the latest parle (2) we will admit : 
Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves; 
Or, like to men proud of destruction, 
Defy us to our worst ; for, as I am a soldier, 
A name that in my thoughts becomes me best, 
If I begin the battery once again, 
I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur 
Till in her ashes she lie buried. 
The gates of mercy shall be all shut up, 
And the flesh'd (3) soldier, rough and hard of heart, 
In liberty of bloody hand shall range 
With conscience wide as hell, mowing like grass 
Your fresh-fair virgins and your flowering infants. 

C(i) Le Sieur de Estoteville. (2) Parley, interview. (3) Who has 
tasted blood and whose animal passions are aroused. 

~(45) 



King Henry the Fifth 



What is it then to me, if impious war, 

Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends, 

Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats (l) 

Enlink'd to waste and desolation *? 

What is 't to me, when you yourselves are cause, 

If your pure maidens fall into the hand 

Of hot and forcing violation ? 

What rein can hold licentious wickedness 

When down the hill he holds his fierce career ? 

We may as bootless spend our vain command 

Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil, 

As send precepts to the leviathan 

To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Har- 

fleur, 
Take pity of your town and of your people, 
Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command ; 
Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace 
O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds 
Of headly murther, spoil and villainy. 
If not, why, in a moment, look to see 
The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand 
Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters; 
Your fathers taken by the silver beards, 
And their most reverend heads dashed to the walls; 
Your naked infants spitted upon pikes ; 
Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd 
Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry (2) 
At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. 
What say you ? will you yield, and this avoid % 
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroyed'? 

(fthe Governor confers a moment with his atten- 
dants, tfhen the flag of truce is lowered and the 
French kneel before King Henry.) 



C(i) All the savage practices naturally concomitant to the sack of cities. 
— Johnson. (2) Judea. 



(46) 



Act Two : The Fifth Scene 

Governor 
Our expectation hath this day an end : 
The Dauphin, whom of succours we entreated, 
Returns us — that his powers are yet not ready 
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king, 
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy : 
Enter our gates : dispose of us and ours ; 
For we no longer are defensible. 

King Henry 
Open your gates. 

(jThe Governor and attendants retire off Right?) 
Come, uncle Exeter, 
Go you and enter Harfleur ; there remain. 
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French : 
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle, — 
The winter coming on, and sickness growing 
Upon our soldiers, — we will retire to Calais. 
To-night in Harfleur we will be your guest ; 
To-morrow for the march are we address'd (l). 

CThe Governor of Harfleur and attendants 

return and, kneeling, present the keys of the 

city to King Henry.) (^Tableau.) 

<The FIFTH Scene 



{A Room in the Palace ^Charles the Sixth) 

CL.King Charles at Centre, the Dauphin, the Consta- 
ble, Lords, herald, and attendants Left and Right. 

French King 
'Tis certain he hath passed the River Somme. (2) 

C(i) Prepared. (2) The French King being at Roan, and hering that 
the King of England had passed the water of Some, was not a little dis- 
content. * * * And so Mountjoy, King at Armes, was sent to the 
King of Englande to defye him as the enemie of Fraunce. — Stowe. 

— 



King Henry the Fifth 

Constable 
And if he be not fought withal (l), my lord, 
Let us not live in France ; let us quit all, 
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people. (2) 

Bourbon 
Mort de ma vie ! If they march along 
Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom, 
To buy a slobbery (3) and a dirty farm 
In that nook-shotten (4) isle of Albion. 
Dieu de battailes ! where have they this mettle ? 

French King 
Where is Montjoy, the herald ? speed him hence ; 
Let him greet England with our sharp defiance. 
Up, princes ; and, with spirit of honour edged. 
More sharper than your swords, hie to the field ; 
Charles De-la-bret, high constable of France ; 
You dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri, 
Alen^on, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy ; 
Jacques Chatillon, Grandpre, and Charolois ; 
High dukes, great princes, barons, lords and knights, 
For your great seats, now quit you of great shames. 
Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land 
With pennons (5) painted in the blood of Har- 

fleur : 
Rush on his host as doth the melted snow 
Upon the valleys ; whose low vassal seat 
The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon ; 
Go down upon him, — you have power enough, — 
And in a captive chariot into Rouen 
Bring him our prisoner. 

C(i) Emphatic form of with. (2) The French, Italians, and Spaniards, 
even in Shakespeare's day, regarded the English as semi-barbarians. 
(3) Wet and foul. (4) Uneven shore, shot with nooks. (5) Schmidt 
thinks the meaning of wings and flags are here combined. — Rolfe. 

" (5) 



Act Two : TA.^ Sixth Scene 

Constable 

This becomes the great. 
Sorry am I his numbers are so few, 
His soldiers sick and famished in their march ; 
For, I am sure, when he shall see our army, 
He'll drop his heart into the sink of fear, 
And, for achievement (l), offer us his ransom. 

French King 
Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy ; 
And let him say to England, that we send 
To know what willing ransom he will give. 
Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen. 

Dauphin 
Not so, I do beseech your majesty. 

French King 
Be patient, for you shall remain with us. 
Now, forth, lord constable, and princes all; 
And quickly bring us word of England's fall. 

(^Tableau?) 

"The SIXTH Scene 



(A view in Picardy) 



^[Enter Gower and Fluellen, from either side, meeting. 

GOWER 

How now, Captain Fluellen ! come you from the 
bridge ? (2) 

C(i) Achievement in the old chivalry probably had some precise signifi- 
cance not handed down to us. The King, in Act III., scene 3, says 
"Bid them achieve me." The meaning here is plainly that instead of 
fighting he will offer to pay ransom. (2) The reference here is to an 
historical fact. After Henry had passed the Somme, the French at- 
tempted to break down the only bridge over the Ternoise, at Blangy, 
and thus cut off his passage to Calais ; but Henry, learning their design, 
sent forward troops who put the French to flight, and guarded the bridge 
until the English had crossed. 

(49) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Fluellen 

I assure you, there is very excellent services com- 
mitted at the pridge. (Trumpets.) 

Hark you, the king is coming, and I must speak 
with him from the pridge. {They move Left?) 

QEnter, from Right, King Henry, Gloster, Bed- 
ford, other nobles and soldiers, and pages bearing the 
King's helmet and shield. 

Got pless your majesty ! 

King Henry (Centre) 
How now, Fluellen ! earnest thou from the bridge *? 

Fluellen (Left) 

Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of Exe- 
ter has very gallantly maintained the pridge : the 
French is gone off, look you : and there is gallant 
and most prave passages ; marry, th' athversary was 
have possession of the pridge ; but he is enforced to 
retire, and the Duke of Exeter is master of the 
pridge : I can tell your majesty, the duke is a prave 
man. 

King Henry 

What men have you lost, Fluellen? 

Fluellen 
The perdition of th' athversary hath peen very 
great, reasonable great: marry, for my part, I think 
the duke hath lost never a man, but one that is like 
to pe executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, % 
if your majesty know the man ; his face is all bu- 
bukles (l), and whelks, and knobs, and flames of fire ; 
and his lip plows at his nose, and it is like a coal of 

C(i) A corrupt word, formed half of carbuncle, half of bubo, probably 
meaning a red pimple. — Schmidt. 

(5o) 



Act Two : The Sixth Scene 

fire, sometimes plue and sometimes red; but his 
nose is executed, and his fire's out. 

King Henry 
We would have all such offenders so cut off: (1) 
and we give express charge, that, in our marches 
through the country, there be nothing compelled from 
the villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the 
French upbraided or abused in disdainful language ; 
for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the 
gentler gamester is the soonest winner. 

QEnter, from Right, Montjoy, with trumpeters. 
Montjoy kneels, Right Centre. 

Montjoy 
You know me by my habit (2). 

King Henry 
Well, then, I know thee. What shall I know of 
thee? 

Montjoy 
My master's mind. 

King Henry 
Unfold it. 

Montjoy (rises) 
Thus says my king : — Say thou to Harry of Eng- 
land, Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep : 
Advantage is a better soldier than rashness. Tell 

C(i) It will be seen by the following extract from an anonymous chron- 
icler how minutely Shakespeare has adhered to history: "There was 
brought to the king in that plain a certain English robber, who, contrary 
to the laws of God and the Royal proclamation, had stolen from a church 
a pix of copper gilt, found in his sleeve, which he happened to mistake 
for gold, in which the Lord's body was kept ; and in the next village 
where he passed the night, by decree of the King he was put to death on 
the gallows." Titus Livius relates that Henry commanded his army to 
halt until the sacrilege was expiated. He first caused the pix to be re- 
stored to the church, and the offender was then led, bound as a thief, 
through the army, and afterwards hung upon a tree, that every man 
might behold him. (2) Herald's coat. 

(50 



King Henry the Fifth 

him, we could have rebuked him at Harfleur ; but 
that we thought not good to bruise an injury till it 
were full ripe. Now we speak upon our cue, ( 1) and 
our voice is imperial ; England shall repent his folly, 
see his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid 
him, therefore, consider of his ransom : which must 
proportion (2) the losses we have borne, the subjects 
we have lost, the disgrace we have digested (3). For 
our losses his exchequer is too poor ; for the effusion 
of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint 
a number; and, for our disgrace, his own person 
kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worthless sat- 
isfaction. To this add — defiance ; and tell him for 
conclusion, he hath betrayed his followers, whose 
condemnation is pronounced. So far my king and 
master, so much my office. 

King Henry 

What is thy name ? I know thy quality (4). 
Montjoy 

Montjoy. 

King Henry 
Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back, 
And tell thy king I do not seek him now; 
But could be willing to march on to Calais 
Without impeachment (5) ; for, to say the sooth, (6) 
Though 't is no wisdom to confess so much 
Unto an enemy of craft and vantage, 
My people are with sickness much enfeebled, 
My numbers lessen'd, and those few I have 
Almost no better than so many French ; 
Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, 
I thought upon one pair of English legs 
Did march three Frenchmen. — Yet, forgive me God, 

C/i) In our turn. (2) Be in proportion to. (3) Put up with. (4) Pro- 
fession. (5) Hindrance, impediment. (6) Truth. 

— - 



Act Two : The Sixth Scene 

That I do brag thus ! — This your air of France 
Hath blown that vice in me ; I must repent. 
Go therefore, tell thy master here I am : 
My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk, 
My army but a weak and sickly guard ; 
Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, 
Though France himself and such another neighbour 
Stand in our way. There 's for thy labour, (1) 

Montjoy. (Hands pursed) 

Go, bid thy master well advise himself: 
If we may pass, we will ; if we be hinder'd, 
We shall your tawny ground with your red blood 
Discolour : (2) and so, Montjoy, fare you well. 
The sum of all our answer is but this : 
We would not seek a battle, as we are, 
Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it : 
So tell your master. 

Montjoy 
I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness. 

(Montjoy and trumpeters Exeunt, Right?) 

Gloster (Left Centre) 
I hope they will not come upon us now. 

King Henry 

We are in God's hand, brother, not in theirs. 
March to the bridge ; it now draws toward night. 
Beyond the river we'll encamp ourselves, 
And on to-morrow bid them march away. 

(Exeunt, Left.} 

The End of the Second Act 

C(i) It was customary to reward a herald, no matter what was his mes- 
sage. (2) My desire is, that none of you be so unadvised, as to be the 
occasion that I, in my defence, shall colour and make red your tawny 
ground with the effusion of Christian blood. When he (Henry) had thus 
answered the Herald, he gave him a great reward, and licensed him to 
depart. — Holinshed. 

(53) 



ACT THREE 

of King Henry V 

Rumour appears as Chorus 

Now entertain conjecture of a time 

When creeping murmur and the poring dark, 

Fills the wide vessel of the universe. 

From camp to camp, through the foul womb of 

night, 
The hum of either army stilly ( l ) sounds, 
That the fixed sentinels almost receive 
The secret whispers of each other's watch. (2) 
Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames 
Each battle sees the other's umber'd face : 
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs, 
Piercing the night's dull ear ; and from the tents, 
The armourers, accomplishing the knights, 
With busy hammers closing rivets up, (3) 
Give dreadful note of preparation. 
The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll, 
And the third hour of drowsy morning name. 
Proud of their numbers, and secure in soul, 
The confident and over-lusty French 
Do the low-rated English play at dice ; 
And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night, (4) 

C(i) Gently, lowly. (2) The armies were only 250 paces apart, accord- 
ing to Holinshed. (3) The plate armour was not only riveted in parts, 
before it was put on, but the armourers were employed in closing up 
parts which fitted to each other by rivets, when the knight was being 
equipped for the battle or tournament. — Knight. (4) This scene and 
the next are intended by Shakespeare to contrast the difference in the 
demeanor of the French and the English on the eve of battle. The night 
was passed in silence and earnest devotion in the English camp, every 
one contemplated the morrow with an awful solemnity. The resolution 
to exert themselves to their last breath for their own preservation and 
honour was universal ; but their state of weakness from disease and suffer- 
ing, and the vast superiority of the enemy, forbad much hope. — Sharon 
Turner. The Frenchmen made greate fires about their banners * * * 
and all that night made greate chere, and were very mery. The English- 

(54) 



Act Three: The First Scene 

Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp 

So tediously away. The poor condemned English, 

Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires 

Sit patiently, and inly ruminate 

The morning's danger ; and their gesture sad 

Investing lank-lean cheeks, and war-worn coats, 

Presenteth them unto the gazing moon 

So many horrid ghosts. O, now, who will behold 

The royal captain of this ruin'd band, 

Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent, 

Let him cry — " Praise and glory on his head ! " 

-For forth he goes, and visits all his host, 

Bids them good morrow, with a modest smile, 

And calls them brothers, friends and countrymen. 

Upon his royal face there is no note 

How dread an army hath enrounded him. 

fbe FIRST Scene 



(^Ihe Dauphin's Tent near Agincourt) 

QThe Dauphin reclines on couch, Centre. The Consta- 
ble and Orleans play at dice at table, Right. Bour- 
bon, Rambures(i) and Grandpre play at dice on drum- 
head Left. Attendants at back. A sentinel paces before 
the door on the outside. Pages are serving wine. The 
Dauphin rises and goes up to the door of the tent, Centre. 

Constable 

Tut! I have the best armour of the world. Would 
it were day ! 

men that night sounded their trompettes and diverse instruments musicale 
with greate melody, and yet they were bothe hungery, wery, sore traveled 
and much vexed with colde deseases : Howbeit they made peace with God, 
in confessyng their synnes, requiring hym of help, and receivyng the holy 
sacramente, every man encouragyng and determying clerely rather to die 
than either to yelde or flie. — Hall' 's Chronicle. 

C( T ) The Lord of Rambures was commander of the cross-bows of the 
French army at Agincourt. 

(55) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Orleans. 
You have an excellent armour ; but let my horse 
have his due. 

Constable 
It is the best horse of Europe. 

Orleans 
v Will it never be morning'? 

Dauphin (returning Centre at Front) 
My Lord of Orleans, and my lord high constable, 
you talk of horse and armour? 

Orleans {rises) 

You are as well provided of both as any prince 
in the world. (Sits again.) 

Dauphin 

What a long night is this! — I will not change 
my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. 
Ca, ha ! he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails 
were hairs ;(i ) le cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les 
narines de feu ! When I bestride him, I soar, I am 
a hawk : he trots the air ; the earth sings when he 
touches it ; the basest horn of his hoof is more musi- 
cal than the pipe of Hermes. Will it never be 
day ? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my way 
shall be paved with English faces. (2) 

Constable (rises) 
I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of 
my way. But I would it were morning, for I would 
fain be about the ears of the English. • 

Orleans 
Who will go to hazard with me for twenty pris- 
oners ? 

C(i) That is, as if he were a tennis ball stuffed with hair. — Rolfe. (2) 
They were estemed to be in numbre sixe times as many, or more than 
was the whole compaigny of the Englishmen with wagoners, pages, and 
all.. — HaWs Chronicle. 

(56) 



Act Three : The First Scene 

Constable 
You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have 
them. 

Dauphin 

Tis past midnight, I'll go arm myself. 

(Exit Dauphin, Right. Others laugh.) 

Orleans 
The Dauphin longs for morning. 
He longs to eat the English. 

Constable 
I think he will eat all he kills. 

Orleans 
By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince. 

Constable 
Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath. 

Orleans 
He is, simply, the most active gentleman of France. 

Constable 
Doing is activity; and he will still be doing. (1) 

Orleans 
He never did harm, that I heard of. 

Constable 
Nor will do none to-morrow: he will keep that 
good name still. 

Orleans 
I know him to be valiant. 

Constable 
I was told that, by one that knows him better 
than you. 

C(i) White says " doing " has here an amorous sense. 

~~(57) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Orleans 
What's he? 

Constable 
Marry, he told me so himself; and „he said, he 
cared not who knew it. 

QEnter a Messenger at Centre. 

Messenger 
My lord high constable, the English lie within 
fifteen hundred paces of your tents.(i) 

Constable 
Who hath measured the ground % 

Messenger 
The Lord Grandpre. 

Constable 
A valiant and most expert gentleman. 

(Exit Messenger.) 
Would it were day ! Alas, poor Harry of Eng- 
land ! he longs not for the dawn, as we do. 

Orleans 
What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king 
of England, to mope with his fat-brained (2) followers 
so far out of his knowledge ! 

Constable 
If the English had any apprehension, they would 
run away. 

Orleans 
That they lack ; for if their heads had any intel- 
lectual armour, they could never wear such heavy 
head-pieces. 

C(i) Holinshed says that the distance between the two armies was but 
250 paces. (2) Stupid. 

(58)~ 



Act Three : The First Scene 



Rambures 
That island of England breeds very valiant creat- 
ures ; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage. 

Orleans 

Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth of 
a Russian bear and have their heads crushed like 
rotten apples ! You may as well say, that's a vali- 
ant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a 
lion. 

Constable 

Just, just ; and the men do sympathize with the 
mastiffs in robustious and rough coming on, leaving 
their wits with their wives: and then give them 
great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat 
like wolves and fight like devils. 

Orleans 
Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef. 

Constable 
Then shall we find to-morrow they have only 
stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it time 
to arm : come, shall we about it ? 

{Bell off strikes two.} 

Orleans 
It is now two o'clock : but, let me see, by ten 
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen. 

{Exeunt. Others off sing a night song.} 




King 


H E 


N R Y / 


h e 


Fi 


F T 


H 




The 


SECOND 


Scene 


before 


dawn 




(ffbe English 


Lines 


near Agincourt just 


■) 



^Chanting is heard in the distance. 'The- monks confess 
and bless the soldiers. Retiring, they leave the young 
Duke 0/* Bedford standing over the embers of a smoul- 
dering fire. He is joined by his brothers, King Henry 
and the Duke a/^Gloster. 

King Henry (Centre) 
Gloster, 'tis true that we are in great danger ; 
The greater therefore should our courage be. 
Good morrow, brother Bedford. — God Almighty ! 
There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out ; 
For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers, 
Which is both healthful and good husbandry (l) : 
That we should dress us(2) fairly for our end. 
Thus may we gather honey from the weed, 
And make a moral of the devil himself. 

{[Enter Erpingham (3) from Left 

Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham : 
A good soft pillow for that good white head 
Were better than a churlish turf of France. 

Erpingham {Left Centre) 
Not so, my liege : this lodging likes me better, 
Since I may say, now lie I like a king. 

King Henry 
'Tis good for men to love their present pains. 
Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. — Brothers both, 
Commend me to the princes in our camp ; 

C(i) Thrift. (2) To address, that is, set in order, prepare. (3) Sir 
Thomas Erpingham came over with Bolingbroke from Brittany, and was 
one of the commissioners to receive King Richard's abdication. 

_ (60) 



Act Three: The Second Scene 

Do my good morrow to them ; and, anon, 
Desire them all to my pavilion. 

(He throws Erpingham's cloak about him?) 

Gloster 
We shall, my liege. 

(Exeunt Gloster and Bedford.) 

Erpingham 
Shall I attend your grace ? 

King Henry 

No, my good knight ; 
Go with my brothers to my lords of England : 
I and my bosom must debate awhile, 
And then I would no other company. 

Erpingham 
The Lord in Heaven bless thee, noble Harry ! 

(Exit Erpingham, Right.) 

King Henry 

God-a-mercy, old heart ! thou speakest cheerfully. 

(He goes up.) 

QEnter Pistol from heft. 

Pistol 

Qui va Id ? 

King Henry (hooded and cloaked) 

A friend. 

Pistol 
Discuss unto me ; art thou an officer? 
Or, art thou base, common and popular (l) ? 

King Henry 
I am a gentleman of a company. 

C(i) Of the people, not noble or of royalty. 
(61) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Pistol 
Trail'st thou the puissant pike ? 

King Henry 
Even so : what are you ? 

Pistol 
As good a gentleman as the emperor. 

King Henry 
Then you are a better(i) than the king. 

Pistol 

The king's a bawcock(2) and a heart of gold, 

A lad of life, an imp (3) of fame; 

Of parents good, of fist most valiant ; 

I kiss his dirty shoe, and from my heartstrings 

I love the lovely bully. What's thy name ? 

King Henry 
Harry Le Roy. 

Pistol 
Le Roy ! a Cornish name ; art thou of Cornish crew? 

King Henry 
No, I am a Welshman. 

Pistol 
Knowest thou Fluellen ? 

King Henry 
Yes. 

Pistol 

Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate, 
Upon St. Davy's day. {Crosses to Right?) 

C(i) A better man. (2) A term of endearment, says Schmidt, synony- 
mous to chuck, but always masculine. White says "jolly good fellow: 
beau coca." (3) Youngling, youngster, son. 
_____ 



Act Three: Th e Second Scene 

King Henry 
Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that 
day, lest he knock that about yours. 

Pistol 
Art thou his friend ? 

King Henry 

And his kinsman too. 
i 

Pistol 
The ^0(1) for thee, then ! 

King Henry 
I thank you : God be with you. 

Pistol 
My name is Pistol called. 

King Henry 

It sorts(2) well with your fierceness. 

{Exit Pistol, Right.) 

(King Henry retires into the shadow as Fluellen 

and Gower enter from Right and Left, meeting.) 

Gower 
Captain Fluellen ! 

Fluellen 
So ! in the name of Cheshu Christ, speak lower. (3) 
It is the greatest admiration in the universal world, 
when the true and aunchient prerogatifes and laws 
of the wars is not kept. If you would take the 
pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the 
Great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no 
tiddle taddle nor pibble pabble in Pompey's camp ; 

C.(i) Fig. (2) Agrees. (3) Shakespeare has here, as usual, followed 
Holinshed : " Order was taken by commandment from the king, after 
the army was first set in battle array, that no noise or clamor should be 
made in the host. " 

(63) 



King Henry the Fifth 

I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the 
wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and 
the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to pe other- 
wise. 

Gower 
Why, the enemy is loud ; you hear him all night. 

Fluellen 
If the enemy is an ass and a fool and a prating 
coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, 
look you, pe an ass and a fool and a prating cox- 
comb *? in your own conscience (l), now? 

Gower 
I will speak lower. 

Fluellen 
I pray you, and beseech you, that you will. 

(Exeunt Gower and Fluellen, Right.) 

King Henry 
Though it appear a little out of fashion, 
There is much care and valour in this Welshman. 

{[Enter, from Left, Bates and Williams, stopping 
before the fire, Left Centre. 

Williams {Left Centre) 
Brother John Bates, is not that the morning 
which breaks yonder *? 

Bates (Left) 
I think it be : but we have no great cause to de- 
sire the approach of day. 

Williams 
We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I 
think we shall never see the end of it. — Who goes 
there *? 

C(i) Opinion. 
(64F 



Act T h ree : The Second Scene 



King Henry (up Centre) 
A friend. 

Williams 
Under what captain serve you ? 

King Henry 
Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. 

Williams 
• A good old commander and a most kind gentle- 
man : I pray you, what thinks he of our estate *? 

King Henry 
Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to 
be washed off the next tide. 

Bates 
He hath not told his thought to the king? 

King Henry 

No ; nor it is not meet he should. For, though 
I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, as 
I am : the violet smells to him as it doth to me ; 
the element shows to him as it doth to me; all his 
senses have but human conditions : his ceremonies 
laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man ; and 
though his affections are higher mounted than ours, 
yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing.( l ) 
Therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we do, 
his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours 
are : yet, in reason, no man should possess him with 
any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should 
dishearten his army. 

Bates 

He may show what outward courage he will ; but 
I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish him- 

C(*) The terms mounted, stoop, and wing are borrowed from falconry. 

(65) 



King Henry the Fifth 

self in the Thames up to the neck ; and so I would 
he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we 
were quit here. 

King Henry 

By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the 
king : I think he would not wish himself anywhere 
but where he is. 

Bates 

Then I would he were here alone ; so should he 
be sure to be ransomed, and many poor men's lives 
saved. 

King Henry 

I dare say you love him not so ill to wish him 
here alone, howsoever you speak this to feel other 
men's minds. Methinks, I could not die anywhere 
so contented as in the king's company ; his cause 
being just and his quarrel honourable. 

Williams 
That's more than we know. 

Bates 
Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we 
know enough if we know we are the king's sub- 
jects; if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the 
king wipes the crime of it out of us. 

Williams 
But if the cause be not good, the king himself 
hath a heavy reckoning to make. I am afeard there 
are few die well that die in battle ; for how can they 
charitably dispose of anything when blood is their 
argument'? Now, if these men do not die well, it 
will be a black matter for the king that led them to 
it ; whom to disobey were against all proportion of 
subjection (l). 

C(i) That is, reasonable service. 



Act Three: The Second Scene 

King Henry 
So, if a son that is by his father sent about mer- 
chandise, do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the im- 
putation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be 
imposed upon his father that sent him ; or if a ser- 
vant, under his master's command, transporting a sum 
of money, be assailed by robbers, and die in many 
irreconciled iniquities, you may call the business of 
the master the author of the servant's damnation. 
But this is not so : the king is not bound to answer 
the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of 
his son, nor the master of his servant ; for they pur- 
pose not their death when they purpose their ser- 
vices. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never 
so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, 
can try it out with all unspotted soldiers. Every 
subject's duty is the king's ; but every subject's soul 
is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the 
wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every 
mote out of his conscience ; and dying so, death is 
to him advantage ; or not dying, the time was bless- 
edly lost, wherein such preparation was gained. 

Williams 
'Tis certain, every man that dies ill the ill is upon 
his own head ; the king is not to answer it. 

Bates 
I do not desire he should answer for me ; and yet 
I determine to fight lustily for him. 

King Henry 
I myself heard the king say he would not be ran- 
somed. (Comes forward, Right.) 

Williams 
Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully ; but, 

(67) 



King Henry the Fifth 

when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and 
we ne'er the wiser. 

King Henry 
If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after. 

Williams 
You pay him then ! (Rises, going Centre.) That's 
a perilous shot out of an elder gun(i), that a poor and 
private displeasure can do against a monarch ! you 
may as well go about to turn the sun to ice, with 
fanning in his face with a peacock's feather. You'll 
never trust his word after ! come, 'tis a foolish saying. 

King Henry 

Your reproof is something too round(2) : I should 
be angry with you if the time were convenient. 

Williams 
Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live. 

{Approaches, threatening^) 

King Henry 
I embrace it. 

Williams 
How shall I know thee again*? 

King Henry 
Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in 
my bonnet : then, if ever thou darest acknowledge 
it, I will make it my quarrel. 

Williams 
Here's my glove : give me another of thine. 

King Henry 
There. (Jfhey exchange gloves.) 

C(i) A g un made of elder wood, a pop gun. (2) Rough, unceremonious. 

(68) ~~~~ 



Act Three : The Second Scene 



Williams 
This will I also wear in my cap : if ever thou 
come to me and say, after to-morrow, "This is my 
glove," by this hand, I will take thee a box on the 
ear. 

King Henry 

If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it. 

Williams 
Thou darest as well be hanged. 
King Henry 
"Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the king's 
company. {Crosses to Left) 

Williams (Right) 
Keep thy word : fare thee well. 

Bates {coming between, Right Centre) 
Be friends, you English fools, be friends : we have 
French quarrels enow(i), if you could tell how to 
reckon. 

King Henry 
Indeed, the French may lay twenty French 
crowns (2) to one, they will beat us ; for they bear 
them on their shoulders : but it is no English treason 
to cut French crowns, and to-morrow the king him- 
self will be a clipper. 

{Exeunt Williams and Bates, Right) 

{T'he King alone, Left Centre) 

King Henry 
Upon the king ! let us our lives, our souls, 
Our debts, our careful (3) wives, 

CO) Old plural of enough. (2) A common expression for a bald head, 
but the pun here, Tyrwhitt points out, may turn simply on the double 
meaning of crown. To cut French crowns is an allusion to the crime of 
clipping coin. (3) Full of care. 

(69) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Our children, and our sins, lay on the king. 
We must bear all. 

hard condition ! twin-born with greatness, 
Subject to the breath of every fool, whose sense 
No more can feel but his own wringing (1) ! 
What infinite hearts-ease must kings neglect 
That private men enjoy *? 

And what have kings that privates have not too, 

Save ceremony, save general ceremony 1 ? 

And what art thou, thou idle ceremony ? 

What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more 

Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers ? 

Art thou aught else but place, degree and form, 

Creating awe and fear in other men ? 

Wherein thou art less happy, being feared, 

Than they in fearing. 

What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, 

But poison'd flattery % O, be sick, great greatness, 

And bid thy ceremony give thee cure. 

Think'st thou, the fiery fever will go out 

With titles blown from adulation ? 

Will it give place to flexure and low bending ? 

Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's 

knee, 
Command the health of it ? No, thou proud dream, 
That play'st so subtly with a king's repose ; 

1 am a king that find thee, and I know 

'Tis not the balm (2), the sceptre, and the ball, 
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial, 
The inter-tissued robe of gold and pearl, 
The farced title running 'fore the king, 
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp 
That beats upon the high shore of this world ; 
No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony, 

C(i) Suffering. (2) The anointing oil used at coronation. 
(7o) 



Act Three:T^ Second Scene 

Not all these, laid in bed majestical, 

Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave, 

Who with a body fill'd and vacant mind 

Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread ; 

Never sees horrid night, the child of hell, 

But, like a lackey, from the rise to set 

Sweats in the eye of Phcebus, and all night 

Sleeps in Elysium ; next day, after dawn, 

Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse; (l) 

And follows so the ever-running year, 

With profitable labour, to his grave : 

And, but for ceremony, such a wretch, 

Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep, 

Had the fore-hand and vantage (2) of a king. 

{[Enter, from Right, Erpingham. 

Erpingham 
My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence, 
Seek through your camp to find you. 

King Henry 

Good old knight, 
Collect them all together at my tent : 
I'll be before thee. 

Erpingham 

I shall do 't, my lord. 

{Exit Right) 
King Henry 
O God of battles ! steel my soldiers' hearts ; 
Possess them not with fear ; take from them now 
The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers 
Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord, 
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault 
My father made in compassing (3) the crown ! 

C(i) Is up before the sun. (2) Advantage. (3) Obtaining. 
(70 



King Henry the Fifth 

I Richard's body have interred new, 
And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears 
Than from it issued forced drops of blood. 
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, 
Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up 
Toward heaven, to pardon blood ; and I have built 
Two chantries, (l) where the sad and solemn priests 
Sing still for Richard's soul. (2) More will I do ; 
Though all that I can do is nothing worth, 
Since that my penitence comes after all, 
Imploring pardon. 

Gloster (off Left) 
My liege ! 

King Henry 

My brother Gloster's voice ? 

QEnter Gloster, Left. 

Ay; . . 

I know thy errand, I will go with thee : 

(Exit Gloster, Left?) 
The day, my friends, and all things stay for me. 

(^Tableau.) 

<TJi) One of these monasteries was for Carthusian monks, and was called 
Bethlehem ; the other was for religious men and women of the order of 
St. Bridget, and was named Sion. They were on opposite sides of the 
Thames, and adjoined the royal,. manor of Sheen, now called Richmond. 
— Malone. (2) He sent unto ye fryers of Langley, where the corps of 
kynge Richarde was buryed, and caused it to be taken out of ye erth, and 
so with reverence and solempntie to be conveyed unto Westmynster, 
and upon the south syde of seynt Edwardes shryne, there honourably to 
be buryed by quene Anne his wife, which there before tyme was entered. 
And after a solempn terment there holdon, he provyded that iiii tapers 
shulde breune daye and nyght about his grave, whyle the world endureth : 
and one day in the weke a solempne dirige, and upon the morrowe a masse 
of Requiem by note ; after which masse endyed, to be gyven wekely unto 
pore people XL S. VIII. in pens ; and upon ye day of his anniversary, 
after ye sayd masse of Requiem is songe, to be yerely distrybuted for his 
soule, XX. li. d. — Fabyan. 



(72) 



Act TnREEiThe Third Scene 



The THIRD Scene 



(The English Position at Agincourt, Morning) 

QEnter Gloster, Bedford, Exeter, York, Salis- 
bury, Erpingham, Westmoreland, a herald, a stand- 
ard bearer, trumpeters and soldiers. 

Gloster {Left) 
Where is the king? 

Bedford (Left) 
The king himself is rode to view their battle. 

Westmoreland (Centre) 
Of fighting men they have full threescore thousand. 

Exeter (Left Centre) 
There's five to one ; besides they are all fresh. 

Erpingham (Right) 
'Tis a fearful odds. 

If we no more meet till we meet in heaven, 
Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford, 
My dear Lord Gloster, and my good Lord Exeter, 
And my kind kinsmen, warriors all, adieu ! 

Bedford 
Farewell, good Erpingham ; and good luck go with 
thee ! (Exit Erpingham, Right.) 

Westmoreland 
O that we now had here 

But one ten thousand of those men in England 
That do no work to-day ! ( ] ) 

C(i) A certain lord, Walter Hungerford, knight, was regretting in the 
King's presence that he had not, in addition to the small retinue which 
he had there, ten thousand of the best English Archers, who would be 
desirous of being with him ; when the King said, Thou speakest foolish- 
ly, for, by the God of Heaven, on whose grace I have relied, and in whom 

(73) 



King Henry the Fifth 

QEnter King Henry through ranks of soldiers, from 
Right Centre. 

King Henry {Centre) 

What's he that wishes so *? 
My cousin Westmoreland ? No, my fair cousin : 
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow 
To do our country loss ; and if to live, 
The fewer men, the greater share of honour. 
God's will ! I pray thee, wish not one man more. 
By Jove, ( 1 ) I am not covetous for gold, 
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost ; 
It yearns (2) me not if men my garments wear; 
Such outward things dwell not in my desires : 
But if it be a sin to covet honour, 
I am the most offending soul alive. 
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England : 
God's peace ! I would not lose so great an honour 
As one man more, methinks, would share from me 
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more ! 
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, 
That he which hath no stomach to this fight, 
Let him depart; his passport shall be made, 
And crowns for convoy (3) put into his purse : 
We would not die in that man's company 
That fears his fellowship to die with us. 
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian : (4) 

I have a firm hope of victory, I would not, even if I could, increase my 
number by one ; for those whom I have are the people of God, whom he 
thinks me worthy to have at this time. — Nicholas's History of Agincourt. 
C(i) " The King prays like a Christian and swears like a heathen," says 
Johnson. (2) Grieves. (3) Travelling expenses. (4) The 25th of Octo- 
ber, Saint Crispin's day. Crispin and Crispian were brothers, born in 
Rome ; whence they travelled to Soissons, France, about A. d. 303, to 
propagate the Christian religion. They supported themselves by working 
at their trade of shoemaking ; but the governor of the town, learning that 
they were Christians, caused them to be beheaded. They subsequently 
became the tutelar saints of the shoemakers. 

(74) 



Act Three:T^ Third Scene 

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, 

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, 

And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 

He that outlives this day, and sees old age, 

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, 

And say, " To-morrow is Saint Crispian : " 

Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars : 

And say, " These wounds I had on Crispin's day." 

Then shall our names, 

Familiar in their mouths as household words, — 

Harry the king, Bedford, and Exeter, 

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster, — 

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. 

This story shall the good man teach his son; 

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 

From this day to the ending of the world, 

But we in it shall be remember'd : 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers : 

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 

Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile, 

This day shall gentle his condition ; (l) 

And gentlemen in England, now a-bed, 

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here ; 

And hold their manhoods cheap, whiles any speaks 

That fought with us upon St. Crispin's day. 

^[Enter Gower from Right, kneels Right Centre before 
the King. 

Gower 
My sovereign lord, bestow (2) yourself with speed ; 
The French are bravely (3) in their battles set, 
And will with all expedience (4) charge on us. 

C(i) Advance him to the rank of gentleman. (2) Repair to your post. 
(3) With great display. (4) Expedition, haste. 

(75) 



King Henry the Fifth 

King Henry 
All things are ready, if our minds be so. 

(Gower rises?) 

Westmoreland (Left Centre) 
Perish the man whose mind is backward now ! 

King Henry 
Thou dost not wish more help from England, coz? 

Westmoreland 
Heaven's will, my liege, would you and I alone, 
Without more help, could fight this royal battle ! 

King Henry 
Why, now, thou hast unwish'd five thousand men, 
Which likes me better than to wish us one. — 
You know your places : God be with you all ! 

{[Enter Montjoy and trumpeters from Right. 

MONTJOY 

Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry, 

If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound, 

Before thy most assured overthrow : 

For, certainly, thou art so near the gulf 

Thou needs must be englutted (l). Besides, in 

mercy, 
The constable desires thee thou wilt mind 
Thy followers of repentance ; that their souls 
May make a peaceful and a sweet retire 
From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor 

bodies 
Must lie and fester. 

King Henry 

Who has sent thee now ? 

C(i) Swallowed up. 
(76) 



Act Three: T^ Third Scene 

MONTJOY 

The Constable of France. 

King Henry 
I pray thee, bear my former answer back ; 
Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones. 
Good God! why should they mock poor fellows 

thus? 
The man that once did sell the lion's skin 
While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him. 
Let me speak proudly. Tell the constable, 
We are but warriors for the working-day : ( 1 ) 
Our gayness, and our gilt (2), are all besmirch'd 
With rainy marching in the painful field; 
There's not a piece of feather in our host 
(Good argument, I hope, we will not fly), 
And time hath worn us into slovenry : 
But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim : 
And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night 
They'll be in fresher robes ; or they will pluck 
The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads, 
And turn them out of service. If they do this 
(As, if Heaven please, they shall), my ransom then 
Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour, 
Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald ; 
They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints ; 
Which, if they have as I will leave 'em them, 
Shall yield them little, tell the constable. 

Montjoy 
I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well : 
Thou never shalt hear herald any more. 

{Exeunt Right?) 
King Henry 
I fear, thou wilt once more come again for ransom. 

C(i) Soldiers ready for work, not dressed up for holiday. (2) Refers to 
the gilding on their armour and weapons. 

(77) 



King Henry the Fifth 

York {kneels Lefi Centre} 
My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg 
The leading of the vaward (l). 

King Henry 
Take it, brave York. — Now, soldiers, march away : 
And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day ! 

Vie FOURTH Scene 



{Part of the field of Battle, ^he din of battle nearby is 

heard) 

{[Enter, from Right, French Soldier, Pistol and 
Boy. Pistol drags the French Soldier by a halter. 

Pistol {heft Centre) 
Yield, cur. 

French Soldier {Right Centre, on his knees) 
O, prennez misericorde ! ayez pitie de moi ! 

Pistol 
Moy shall not serve, I will have forty moys ; 
For I will fetch thy rim (2) out at thy throat, 
In drops of crimson blood. 

French Soldier 
Est-il impossible d'echapper la force de ton bras'? 

Pistol 
Brass, cur ! 

Thou damned and luxurious (3) mountain goat, 
Offer'st me brass ? 

French Soldier 
O pardonnez moi ! 

C(i) Vanguard. (2) The caul in which the bowels are wrapped. (3) 
Lustful. 

(78) 



Act Three:T^ Fourth Scene 

Pistol 
Say'st thou me so *? is that a ton of moys ? 
Come hither, boy. Ask me this slave in French, 
What is his name. 

Boy {Centre) 
Ecoutez ; comment etes-vous appelle *? 

French Soldier 
Monsieur le Fer. 

Boy 
He says his name is Master Fer. 

Pistol 
Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk(i) him, and 
ferret(2) him : — discuss the same in French unto 
him. 

Boy 

I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and 
firk. 

Pistol 
Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat. 

French Soldier 
Que dit-il, monsieur *? 

Boy 

II me commande de vous dire que vous faites vous 
pret ; car ce soldat ici est dispose tout a cette heure 
de couper votre gorge. 

Pistol 
Ouy, couper gorge, par ma foy, pesant. 
Unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns ; 
Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword. 

<L(i) Beat, drub. (2) To worry, as a ferret does. 

(79) 



King Henry the Fifth 

French Soldier 
O je vous supplie, me pardonner ! Je suis gentil- 
homme de bonne maison; gardez ma vie, et je 
vous donnerai deux cent ecus. 

Pistol 
What are his words ? 

Boy 
He prays you to save his life ; he is a gentleman 
of a good house ; and for his ransom he will give 
you two hundred crowns. 

Pistol 
Tell him, — my fury shall abate, and I 
The crowns will take. (Sheathes sword.} 

French Soldier 
Petit monsieur, que dit-il ? 

Boy 

Encore qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner 
aucun prisonnier, neanmoins, pour les ecus que vous 
l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la 
liberte, le franchisement. 

French Soldier 
Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille remerci- 
ments ; et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombe 
entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus 
brave, vaillant, et tres distingue seigneur d'Angle- 
terre. 

Pistol 
Expound unto me, boy. 

Boy 
He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks : 
and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen 

'"(80) 



Act Three : The Fifth Scene 

into the hands of one (as he thinks) the most brave, 
valorous, and thrice-worthy signieur of England. 

{Goes Right.) 
Pistol 
As I suck blood, I will some mercy show. — 
Follow me. (Exit Pistol, Left.) 

Boy 

Suivez-vous le grand capitaine. 

(Exit French Soldier, Left.) 
I did never know so full a voice issue from so 
empty a heart : but the saying is true, — the empty 
vessel makes the greatest sound. Bardolph and 
Nym had ten times more valour than this roaring 
devil i' the old play,(i) that every one may pare his 
nails with a wooden dagger ; and they are both 
hanged ; and so would this be, if he durst steal any- 
thing adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, 
with the luggage of our camp : the French might 
have a good prey of us, if he knew of it ; for there 
is none to guard it but boys. (Exit Left.) 

"The FIFTH Scene 



(tableau — 'The Battle of Agincourf)(l) 

C(i) In the old " moralities " or comedies, the Vice or buffoon had a 
sword or dagger of lath with which he used to beat the devil, and some- 
times attempted to pare his long nails. (2) The king is reported to have 
dismounted before the battle commenced, and to have fought on foot. 
King Henry was habited in his "cote d'armes, " containing the arms of 
France and England quarterly, and wore on his bacinet a very rich crown 
of gold and jewels, circled like an imperial crown, that is, arched over. 
The earliest instance of an arched crown worn by an English monarch. — 
Planchd. Holinshed states that the English army consisted of 15,000, 
and the French of 60,000 horse and 40,000 infantry — in all, 100,000. 
Walsingham and Harding represent the English as but 9,000, and other 
authors say that the number of French amounted to 150,000. Fabian 
says the French were 40,000, and the English only 7,000. The battle 
lasted only three hours. The noble Duke of Gloucester, the king's 
brother, pushing himself too vigorously on his horse into the conflict, 
was grievously wounded, and cast down to the earth by the blows of the 

(81) 



King Henry the Fifth 

The SIXTH Scene 
(A Part of the Field of Battle) 

{[Enter, from Right, Dauphin, Constable, Orleans, 
Bourbon, and others in confusion. 

Constable (Right Centre) 
O diable ! 

Orleans (Right Centre) 

O seigneur ! — le jour est perdu, tout est perdu ! 

Dauphin 
Mort de ma vie ! all is confounded, all ! 
Reproach and everlasting shame 
Sits mocking in our plumes. — O mechante for- 
tune ! — 
Do not run away. (A short alarum without.) 

Constable (Left Centre) 

Why, all our ranks are broke. 

French, for whose protection the King being interested, he bravely leapt 
against his enemies in defence of his brother, defended him with his own 
body, and plucked and guarded him from the raging malice of the 
enemy's, sustaining perils of war scarcely possible to be borne. — Nico- 
las' s History of Agincourt. Thus this battaile continued iii long houres, 
some strake, some defeded, some foyned, some traversed, some kylled, 
some toke prisoners, no man was idle, every man fought either in hope 
of victory or to save him selfe. The Kyng that day shewed him selfe 
like a valiaunt knight, whiche notwithstandyng that he was almost felled 
with the Duke of Alaunson, yet with plain strength he slew ii of the 
Duke's company, and felled the Duke ; but when the Duke would have 
yieulded to him, the Kynge's garde, contrary to the Kynge's minde, out- 
ragiously slewe him. — Hall's Chronicle. During the battle the Duke of 
Alencon most valiantly broke through the English lines, and advanced 
fighting near the King — inasmuch that he wounded and struck down the 
Duke of York. King Henry seeing this stepped forth to his aid, and as 
he was leaning down to aid him the Duke of Alencon gave him a blow on 
his helmet that struck off part of his crown. The King's guards on 
this surrounded him, when seeing he could no way escape death but by 
surrendering, he lifted up his arms and said to the king, "I am the Duke 
of Alencon, and yield myself to you." But as the King was holding out 
his hands to receive his pledge he was put to death by the guards. — 
Monstrelet. 

(82) 



Act Three : The Seventh Scene 

Dauphin 
O perdurable(i) shame ! — let's stab ourselves. 
Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for*? 

Orleans 
Is this the king we sent to for his ransom ? 

Dauphin 
Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame ! 
Let's die in honour : Once more back again. 

Constable 
Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now ! 
Let us, on heaps, go offer up our lives. 

Orleans 
We are enow, yet living in the field, 
To smother up the English in our throngs, 
If any order might be thought upon. 

Constable 
The devil take order now ! I'll to the throng; 
Let life be short; else shame will be too long. 

{Exeunt Right, rushing again to the fight?) 

The SEVENTH Scene 



{The Plains of Agincourt, after the Victory) 

QEnter, from Right, King Henry, Bedford, Glos- 
ter, Warwick, and others, -with a part of the English 
forces. 

King Henry {Centre) 
Well have we done, thrice valiant countrymen : 
But all's not done, yet keep the French the field. 

. C.(i) Lasting. 
""" (83) 



King Henry the Fifth 

QEnter Exeter front Left. 

Exeter 
The Duke of York commends him to your majesty. 

King Henry 
Lives he, good uncle ? thrice within this hour 
I saw him down ; thrice up again, and fighting ; 
From helmet to the spur, all blood he was. 

Exeter 
In which array (brave soldier !) doth he lie, 
Larding(i) the plain : and by his bloody side 
(Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing (2) wounds) 
The noble Earl of Suffolk also lies. 
Suffolk first died: and York all haggled(3) over -> 
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd, 
And takes him by the beard, kisses the gashes 
That bloodily did yawn upon his face, 
And cries aloud, — " Tarry, dear Cousin Suffolk ! 
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven : 
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly a-breast ; 
As, in this glorious and well-foughten field, 
We kept together in our chivalry ! " 
Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up : 
He smil'd me in the face, raught(4) me his hand, 
And with a feeble gripe, says, " Dear, my lord, 
Commend my service to my sovereign." 
So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck 
He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips ; 
And so, espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd 
A testament of noble-ended love. 
The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd 
Those waters from me, which I would have stopp'd 
But I had not so much of man in me, 

C(i) Enriching. (2) Honorable. (3) Cut, mangled. (4) Reached, 
from Old English. 

(84) 



Act Three : The Seventh Scene 

And all my mother came into mine eyes 
And gave me up to tears. 

King Henry {turns to Exeter and grasps his hand) 

I blame you not ; 
For, hearing this, I must perforce compound 
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too. — 
But, hark ! what new alarum is this same *? — 
The French have reinforced their scattered men: 
Give the word through. 

(Exeunt Right, all but Fluellen and Gower, 

who come forward.) 

Fluellen 

Kill the poys and the luggage ! 't is expressly 

against the law of arms : 't is as arrant a piece of 

knavery, mark you now, as can pe offert; in your 

conscience, now, is it not *? 

Gower 
O, 't is a gallant king ! 

Fluellen 
Ay, he was pom at Monmouth, Captain Gower. 
What call you the town's name where Alexander 
the Pig was porn *? 

Gower 
Alexander the Great. 

Fluellen 
Why, I pray you, is not pig, great ? The pig or 
the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the mag- 
nanimous, are all one reckonings save the phrase is 
a little variations. 

Gower 
I think Alexander the Great was born in Mace- 
don; his father was called Philip of Macedon, as I 
take it. (Exeunt, talking.) 



King Henry the Fifth 

{[Enter, from Right, King Henry and forces, War- 
wick, Gloster, Exeter, and others, attended. 

King Henry 
I was not angry since I came to France 
Until this instant. — Take a trumpet, herald ; 
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill : 
If they will fight with us, bid them come down, 
Or void(i) the field; they do offend our sight. 
If they'll do neither, we will come to them, 
And make them skirr(2) away as swift as stones 
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings. 
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have, 
And not a man of them that we shall take 
Shall taste our mercy. Go and tell them so. 

{Exit English Herald, Right, 2.) 

Exeter 
Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. 

{[Enter Montjoy, Right, 1 ; he kneels before the King. 

Gloster 
His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be. 

King Henry 
How now ! what means this, herald ? know'st thou 

not 
That I have fin'd(3) these bones of mine for ran- 
som ? 
Com'st thou again for ransom % ? 

Montjoy 

No, great king : 
I come to thee for charitable license, 
That we may wander o'er this bloody field 
To look (4) our dead, and then to bury them. 

C(i) Avoid, withdraw. (2) Move rapidly. (3) Defined as the sum for 
ransom. (4) Look for. 

~(86) 



Act Three: The Seventh Scene 

King Henry 

I tell thee, truly, herald, 
I know not if the day be ours, or no ; 
For yet a many of your horsemen peer, 
And gallop o'er the field. 

Montjoy 
The day is yours. {Rises?) 

King Henry 
Praised be Heaven, and not our strength, for it. — 
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by ? 

Montjoy 
They call it Agincourt. 

King Henry 
Then call we this the field of Agincourt, 
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. 

Fluellen 
Your grandfather of famous memory, an't please 
your majesty, and your great uncle Edward the 
plack prince of Wales, as I have read in the chron- 
icles, fought a most prave pattle here in France. 

King Henry 
They did, Fluellen. 

Fluellen 

Your majesty says very true : if your majesties is 

remembered of it, the Welshmen did goot service 

in a garden where leeks did grow,(i) wearing leeks 

in their Monmouth caps (2) ; which your majesty 

C(i) King Arthur won a great victory over the Saxons "in a garden 
where leeks did grow," and Saint David ordered that every one of the 
king's soldiers should wear a leek in his cap in honour thereof. Hence 
the Welsh custom of wearing the emblem on Saint David's day, March 
1st. (2) A kind of woollen cap made at Monmouth and much worn by 
soldiers. 

" (87) 



King Henry the Fifth 

knows, to this hour is an honourable padge of the 
service ; and, I do pelieve, your majesty takes no 
scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day. 

King Henry 
I wear it for a memorable honour : 
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. 

Fluellen 
All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's 
Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that : 
Got pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his 
grace, and his majesty, too ! 

King Henry 
Thanks, good my countryman. 

Fluellen 
By Saint Tavy, I am your Majesty's countryman, 
I care not who know it ; I will confess it to all the 
'orld: I need not be ashamed of your majesty, 
praised be Heaven, so long as your majesty is an 
honest man. 

King Henry 
God keep me so ! — Our heralds go with him ; 
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead 
On both our parts. — Call yonder fellow hither. 

(Points to Williams. Exeunt Montjoy and 

others?) 
Exeter 
Soldier, you must come to the king. 

(Williams advances.} 

King Henry 
Soldier, why wearest thou that glove in thy cap ? 

Williams 
An't please your majesty, 'tis the gage of one 
that I should fight withal, if he be alive. 

(38) 



Act Three : The Seventh Scene 

King Henry 

An Englishman'? 

Williams 
An't please your majesty, a rascal that swaggered 
with me last night : who, if 'a live and ever dare to 
challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a 
box o' the ear : or, if I can see my glove in his cap 
(which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear 
if alive), I will strike it out soundly. 

King Henry 
What think you, Captain Fluellen ? is it fit this 
soldier keep his oath ? 

Fluellen 
He is a craven and a villain else, an't please your 
majesty, in my conscience. 

King Henry 
It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, 
quite from the answer of his degree.(i) 

Fluellen 
Though he be as goot a gentleman as the tevil is, 
as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, 
look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath. 

King Henry 
Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou meet'st the 
fellow. 

Williams 

So I will, my liege, as I live. 

King Henry 
Who servest thou under? 

C(i) A person of such station as is not bound to hazard his person to 
answer to a challenge from one of the soldier's low degree. 

(89) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Williams 
Under Captain Gower, my liege. 

Fluellen 
Gower is a goot captain ; and is goot knowledge 
and literatured in the wars. 

King Henry 
Call him hither to me, soldier. 

Williams 
I will, my liege. {Exit Williams, Right.) 

King Henry 

Here, Fluellen; wear thou this favour for me, 
and stick it in thy cap. (Gives glove to Fluellen 
who receives it on his knee.) When Alencon and 
myself were down together,(i) I plucked this glove 
from his helm; if any man challenge this, he is a 
friend to Alenc^on and an enemy to our person ; if 
thou encounter any such, apprehend him, as thou 
dost me love. 

Fluellen (rises) 

Your grace does me as great honours as can be 
desired in the hearts of his subjects : I would fain 
see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find 
himself aggriefed at this glove, that is all; but I 
would fain see it once : an please Heaven of its 
grace that I might see it. 

King Henry 
Knowest thou Gower ? 

Fluellen 
He is my dear friend, an please you. 

C(i) This alludes to an historical fact. Henry was felled to the ground 
by the Duke of Alencon, but recovered himself and slew two of the 
Duke's attendants. 

(9°) 



Act Three : The Seventh Scene 

King Henry 
Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to my tent. 

Fluellen 
I will fetch him. (Exit Fluellen, Right.} 

Henry 
My lord of Warwick, and my brother Gloster, 
Follow Fluellen closely at the heels. 
The glove, which I have given him for a favour, 
May, haply, purchase him a box o' the ear; — 
It is the soldier's : I, by bargain, should 
Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick : 
If that the soldier strike him (as, I judge 
By his blunt bearing, he will keep his word), 
Some sudden mischief may arise of it. 
Follow, and see there be no harm between them. — 
(Exeunt Warwick and Gloster, Right.') 
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. (Exeunt Left.) 

QEnter, from Right, Gower and Williams. 

Williams 
I warrant it is to knight you, captain. 

QEnter Fluellen, following them from Right. 

Fluellen (Centre) 

Got's will and his pleasure, captain, I peseech 
you now, come apace to the king : there is more 
goot toward you peradventure than is in your knowl- 
edge to dream of. 

(Williams notices the glove in Fluellen's helmet. 
He starts with surprise. He takes the glove from his 
own helmet and holds it to Fluellen.) 

Williams (Right) 
Sir, know you this glove ? 



King Henry the Fifth 

Fluellen 
Know the glove ! I know the glove is a glove. 

Williams 
I know this, and thus I challenge it. {Strikes him.) 

Fluellen 
'Sblood !(i) an arrant traitor as any is in the uni- 
versal world, or in France, or in England ! 

Gower 
How now, sir ! you villain ! 

{Draws and comes between them, Centre.) 

Williams 
Do you think I'll be forsworn *? 

Fluellen 
Stand away, Captain Gower; I will give treason 
his payment into plows, I warrant you. 

Williams 
I am no traitor. 

Fluellen 
That's a lie in thy throat. — I charge you in his 
majesty's name, apprehend him: he's a friend of the 
Duke Alencon's. 

QEnter Warwick and Gloster from Right. 

Warwick 
How now, how now ! what's the matter ? 

Fluellen 
My Lord of Warwick, here is — praised pe Got 
for it! — a most contagious treason come to light, 
look you, as you shall desire in a summer's day. 
Here is his majesty. 

C(i) A common oath, an abbreviation for God's blood. 
(92) 



Act Three : The Seventh Scene 

{[Enter, from Left, King Henry and Exeter, other 
lords and attendants. 

King Henry {Centre) 
How now ! what's the matter ? 

Fluellen (Left) 
My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, look 
your grace, has struck the glove which your ma- 
jesty is take out of the helmet of Alencon. 

Williams {Right) 
My liege, this was my glove ; here is the fellow of 
it: and he that I gave it to in change promised to 
wear it in his cap ; I promised to strike him, if he 
did : I met this man with my glove in his cap, and 
I have been as good as my word. 

Fluellen 
Your majesty hear now (saving your majesty's 
manhood), what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy 
knave it is : I hope your majesty is pear me in testi- 
mony, and witness, and will avouchment, that this 
is the glove of Alencon, that your majesty is give 
me, in your conscience now. 

King Henry 

Give me thy glove, soldier! Look, here's the fel- 
low of it. 
'Twas I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike; 
And thou hast given me most bitter terms (1). 

Fluellen 

And please your majesty, let his neck answer for 
it, if there is any martial law in the 'orld. 

C(i) Words. 
(93) 



King Henry the Fifth 

King Henry 
How canst thou make me satisfaction ? 

W i lli am s (kneeling) 
All offences, my liege, come from the heart: 
never came any from mine that might offend your 
majesty. 

King Henry 
It was ourself thou didst abuse. 

Williams 
Your majesty came not like yourself; you ap- 
peared to me but as a common man ; witness the 
night, your garments, your lowliness; and what 
your highness suffered under that shape, I beseech 
you, take it for your own fault, and not mine : for 
had you been as I took you for, I made no offence ; 
therefore, I beseech your highness, pardon me. 

King Henry 
Here, Uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns. 
And give it to this fellow. — Keep it, fellow; 
And wear it for an honour in thy cap, 
Till I do challenge it. — Give him the crowns : — 
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him. 



Fluellen 
By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle 
enough in his pelly : — (Crosses, Right, to Williams 
and offers coin.) Hold, there is twelve pence for you. 

Williams 
I will none of your money. (Retires up Right.) 

Fluellen (following) 
It is with a goot will. 

(94) 



Act Three: T^ Seventh Scene 

QEnter English Herald from Right. He kneels be- 
fore the King. 

King Henry {Left Centre) 
Now, herald ; are the dead number'd ? 

Herald 
Here is the number of slaughter'd French. 

{Delivers a paper?) 

King Henry 
What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle ? 

Exeter 
Charles, Duke of Orleans,(i) nephew to the king; 
John, Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt : 
Of other lords and barons, knights and 'squires, 
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men. (2) 

King Henry 
This note doth tell me of ten thousand French 
That in the field lie slain : of princes, in this num- 
ber, 
And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead 
One hundred twenty-six: added to these, 
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen, 
Eight thousand and four hundred ; of the which, 

C(i) Charles, Duke of Orleans, was wounded and taken prisoner at Agin- 
court. Henry refused all ransom for him, and he remained in captivity 
twenty-three years. (2) Among the most illustrious persons slain were 
the Dukes of Brabant, Barre, and Alencon, five counts, and a still greater 
proportion of distinguished knights ; and the Duke of Orleans, the Count 
of Vendome, who was taken by Sir John Cornwall, the Marshal Bouci- 
qualt, and numerous other individuals of distinction, whose names are 
minutely recorded by Monstrelet, were made prisoners. The loss of the 
English army has been variously estimated. The discrepancies respect- 
ing the number slain on the part of the victors, form a striking contrast 
to the accuracy of the account of the loss of their enemies. The English 
writers vary in their statements from seventeen to one hundred, whilst 
the French chroniclers assert that from three hundred to sixteen hundred 
individuals fell on that occasion. St. Remy and Monstrelet assert that 
sixteen hundred were slain. — Nicolas' 's History of Agincourt. 

"(95) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Five hundred were but yesterday, dubb'd knights :(i) 
So that, in these ten thousand they have lost, 
There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries; 
The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, 'squires, 
And gentlemen of blood and quality. 
Here was a royal fellowship of death ! — 
Where is the number of our English dead ? 

{Herald shows him another paper, then rises and 

retires Right Centre?) 
Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, 
Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire (2) : 
None else of name (3) ; and of all other men 
But five and twenty. — O God, thy arm was here; 
And not to us, but to thy arm alone, 
Ascribe we all ! — When, without stratagem, 
But in plain shock and even play of battle, 
Was ever known so great and little loss 
On one part and on the other % — Take it, God, 
For it is none but thine ! 

Exeter 

'Tis wonderful ! 

King Henry 
Do we all holy rites ; 

Let there be sung Non Nobis and I'e Deum ; 
The dead with charity enclos'd in clay; 
And then to Calais ; and to England then ; 
Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men. 
{All kneel. Song of thanksgiving.} 

The End of the Third Act 

C(i) In ancient times the distribution of this honour appears to have been 
customary on the eve of battle. (2) This gentleman, being sent by 
Henry, before the battle, to find out the strength of the enemy, made 
this report : " May it please you, my liege, there are enough to be killed, 
enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away." He saved the 
king's life in the field. — Malone. (3) Of eminence. 

(96)~ 




ACT FOUR 

of King Henry V 

An HISTORICAL Episode (i) 

QThe Return of Henry F. to London, after the Battle of 
Agincourt. 

HE scene represents London Bridge at 
the Surrey end. Gaily decorated booths 
are banked against the fronts of the 
houses ; banners, flags, and garlands 
float in the air ; a holiday throng crowds 
the ways, the booths and the windows ; 
the chimes of St. Paul are heard above 
the babel of the crowd. Peddlers of bal- 
lads, gilded ginger-bread and other holiday knick-knacks 
do a thriving business. A Merry Andrew amuses with 
athletic antics. 'Two small boys get into a fight and 
anxious mothers separate them. 

The blare of trumpets attracts attention to the coming 
<?/" Nicholas Wotton, Lord Mayor of London, attended 
by the Civic Sword-bearer, the Sergeant at Mace, and 
Aldermen. The Lord Mayor bears the key of the city. 
They pass along the bridge to meet the King on the Surrey 
side and present the freedom of the city. Presently sol- 
diers of the Civic Guard return and crowd the people 

C(i) Extracts of King Henry's reception into London from an anony- 
mous Chronicler, who was an eye-witness of the events he describes : 

' ' And when the wished-f or Saturday dawned, the citizens went forth 
to meet the King. * * * viz., the Mayor and Aldermen in scarlet, 
and the rest of the inferior citizens in red suits, with party-coloured 
hoods, red and white. * * * When they had come to the Tower at 
the approach to the bridge, as it were at the entrance to the authorities 
to the city. * * * Banners of the Royal Arms adorned the Tower, 
elevated on its turrets ; and trumpets, clarions, and horns, sounded in 
various melody ; and in front there was this elegant and suitable inscrip- 
tion upon the wall, ' Civitas Regis justicie ' — ('The City to the King's 
Righteousness.') * * * And behind the tower were innumerable 
boys, representing angels, arrayed in white, and with countenances shin- 

"(97)"' 



King Henry the Fifth 

back against the houses to make way for the procession 
and the festivities, tfhe Lord Mayor and party return 
from their errand of courtesy and occupy a booth to review 
the troops. 

A flourish of trumpets announces the head of the 
colmnn. Company after company of bowmen, archers, 
pikemen, miners and sappers, and other soldiers enter and 
pass through the crowds. 'T'heir ranks are broken and 
their files depleted by the fatalities of their victory. At 
the head of each group marches a knight, with a page 
bearing his shield and a standard-bearer with his colours. 
'T'he crowd cheers its favourites, soldiers recognize familiar 
faces in the crowds. A mother kisses her returning son 
as he marches past. A young wife rushes to the embrace 
of her wounded husband and marches away with him. 
Another girl scans the faces of the passing troopers, but 
seems not to find the one she seeks. She rushes out to an 
officer. He shakes his head and whispers to her. She 
faints and is borne back into the crowd, her little tragedy 
unnoticed in the festivity. 

ing with gold, and glittering wings, and virgin locks set with precious 
sprigs of laurel, who, at the King's approach sang, with melodious 
voices, and with organs, an English anthem. 

******** 

' ' A company of prophets, of venerable hoariness, dressed in golden 
coats and mantels, with their heads covered and wrapped in gold and 
crimson, sang with sweet harmony, bowing to the ground, a psalm of 
thanksgiving. 

*'* * * * * * * 

" And they sent forth upon him round leaves of silver mixed with 
wafers, equally thin and round. And there proceeded out to meet the 
King a chorus of most beautiful virgin girls, elegantly attired in white, 
singing with timbrel and dance, as it were an angelic multitude, decked 
with celestial gracefulness, white apparel, shining feathers, virgin locks, 
studded with gems and other resplendent and most elegant array, who 
sent forth upon the head of the King passing beneath minse of gold, with 
bows of laurel ; round about angels shone with celestial gracefulness, 
chaunting sweetly, and with all sorts of music. 

" And besides the pressure in the standing places, and of men crowd- 
ing through the streets, and the multitude of both sexes along the way 
from the bridge, from one end to the other, that scarcely the horsemen 
could ride through them. A greater assembly, or a nobler spectacle, was 
not recollected to have been ever before in London." 

fci) 



Act Four : Historical Episode 

Following the troops come other knights and attendants. 
T'hey line the way on both sides. Another flourish of 
trumpets and forth from the bridge come a troop of 
maidens in flowing white, who wave palm branches as 
they trip through their figures. Singing in their train 
come a choir of scarlet-vested cathedral boys, six English 
prophets and six English kings, tfhey precede the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely and 
the nobles of the royal court. A huzzah spreads through 
the multitude, the chimes ring out again, the trumpets 
blare, drums roll, banners wave in a riot of colour, and 
viftorious King Harry, on his gaily-caparisoned white 
charger, rides into the midst of his welcome. 

Rumour appears as Chorus. 

Now we bear the king 
Toward Calais : grant him there ; there seen, 
Heave him away upon your winged thoughts 
Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach 
Pales in (1) the flood with men, with wives, and boys, 
Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd 

sea, 
Which like a mighty whiffler (2) fore the king 
Seems to prepare his way : so let him land, 
And solemnly see him set on to London. 
So swift a pace hath thought that even now 
You may imagine him upon Blackheath ; 
Where that his lords desire him to have borne 
His bruised helmet and his bended sword 
Before him through the city : he forbids it, 
Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride ; 
Giving full trophy, signal and ostent 
Quite from himself to God. But now behold, 

C(i) Encompasses. (2) A whiffler is an officer who walks first in pro- 
cessions, or before persons of high stations, on occasions of ceremony. 



King Henry the Fifth 

In the quick forge and working-house of thought, 
How London doth pour out her citizens ! 
The mayor and all his brethren in best sort (l), 
Like to the senators of the antique Rome, 
With the plebeians swarming at their heels, 
Go forth and fetch their conquering CaBsar in. 



The End of the Fourth Act 



CO) Style. 




(ioo) 



ACT FIVE 

0/ King Henry V 

The FIRST Scene 
{Interior of the French King's Palace at Troyes) 

{[jThe Princess Katherine at her embroidery, attended 
by the Lady Alice. 

Katherine (Left Centre) 
^ Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu paries bien 
le langage. 

Alice (Centre) 
Un peu, madame. 

Katherine 
Je te prie, m'enseignez ; il faut que j'apprenne a 
parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglais? 

Alice 
La main ? elle est appelee de hand. 

Katherine 
De hand. Et les doigts ? 

Alice 
Les doigts ? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts ! mais je 
me souviendrai. Les doigts % je pense qu'ils sont 
appeles de fingres : oui, de fingres. 

Katherine 
La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres. Je 
pense que je suis le bon ecolier ; j'ai gagne deux 
mots d'Anglais vitement. Comment appelez-vous 
les ongles ? 

Alice 
Les ongles % nous les appelons de nails. 



King Henry the Fifth 

Katherine 
De nails. Ecoutez ; dites-moi, si je parle bien : 
de hand, de fingres, et de nails. 

Alice 
C'est bien dit, madame ; il est fort bon Anglais. 

Katherine 
Dites-moi 1' Anglais pour le bras. 

Alice 
De arm, madame. 

Katherine 
Et le coude ? 

Alice 
De elbow. 

Katherine 
De elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de tous les 
mots que vous m'avez appris des a present. 

Alice 
II est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. 

Katherine 
Excusez-moi, Alice ; ecoutez : de hand, de fin- 
gres, de nails, de arm, de bilbow. 

Alice 
De elbow, madame. 

Katherine 
O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie ! de elbow. 
Comment appelez-vous le col *? 

Alice 
De neck, madame. 

(102) 



Act Five : The First Scene 



Katherine 
De nick. Et le menton ? 

Alice 
De chin. 

Katherine 
De sin. Le col, de nick ; le menton, de sin. 

Alice 

Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous pro- 
noncez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angle- 
terre. 

Katherine 

Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace de 
Dieu, et en peu de temps. 

Alice 

N'avez vous pas deja oublie ce que je vous ai en- 
seigne ? 

Katherine 

Non, je reciterai a vous promptement : de hand, 
de fingres, de mails, — 

Alice 
De nails, madame. 

Katherine 
De nails, de arm, de ilbow. 

Alice 
Sauf votre honneur, de elbow. (T'hey retire up.) 

( io 3) 



King Henry the Fifth 

{[Enter, on left side, the French King and Queen, with 
their Court, and on the Right the King of England, 
with knights and attendants. 

King Henry (Right Centre) 

Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!(i) 
Unto our brother France, and to our sister, 
Health and fair time of day ; — -joy and good wishes 
To our most fair and princely cousin Katherine ; 
And (as a branch and member of this royalty, 
By whom this great assembly is contriv'd) 
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy(2) ; — 
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all ! 

French King (Left Centre) 

Right joyous are we to behold your face, 
Most worthy brother England ; fairly met : — 
So are you, princes English, every one. 

Queen Isabel (Left) 
You English princes all, I do salute you. 

Burgundy (Centre) 

My duty to you both, on equal love, 

Great Kings of France and England ! That I have 

labour'd 
With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours, 
To bring your most imperial majesties 

C(0 Shortly after his arrival he waited on the King and Queen of 
France, and the Lady Catharine their daughter, when great honour and 
attentions were by them mutually paid to each other. — Monstrelet. (2) 
John, Duke of Burgundy, surnamed the Fearless, succeeded to the 
Dukedom in 1403. He caused the Duke of Orleans to be assassinated 
in the streets of Paris, and was himself murdered August 28th, 1419, on 
the bridge of Montereau, at an interview with the Dauphin, afterwards 
Charles VII. John was succeeded by his only son, who bore the title of 
Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. 

(104) 



Act Five : The First Scene 

Unto this bar(i) and royal interview, 

Your mightiness on both parts best can witness. 

Since then my office hath so far prevail'd 

That face to face, and royal eye to eye, 

You have congreeted(2); let it not disgrace me, 

If I demand, before this royal view, 

What rub(3), or what impediment, there is, 

Why that naked, poor, and mangled peace, 

Dear nurse of arts, plenties and joyful births, 

Should not, in this best garden of the world, 

Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage *? 

King Henry 

If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace, 
Whose want gives growth to the imperfections 
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace 
With full accord to all our just demands : 
Whose tenors and particular effects 
You have, enschedul'd(4) briefly, in your hands. 

Burgundy 

The king hath heard them ; to the which, as yet, 
There is no answer made. 

King Henry 

Well, then, the peace 
Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer. 

French King 

I have but with a cursorary(5) eye 
O'er-glanced the articles : pleaseth(6) your grace 
To appoint some of your council presently 
To sit with us once more, with better heed 

C(l) Place of congress. (2) Met in a friendly way. (3) Hindrance. 
(4) Written down. (5) Cursory. (6) May it please. 

(^5) 



King Henry the Fifth 

To re-survey them, we will, suddenly, 
Pass our accept(i) and peremptory answer. 

King Henry 
Brother, we shall. — Go, uncle Exeter, 
And brother Clarence, — and you, brother Gloster ; 
Warwick, and Huntington, go with the king : 
And take with you free power to ratify, 
Augment or alter, as your wisdoms best 
Shall see advantageable(2) for our dignity, 
Anything in, or out of, our demands ; 
And we'll consign thereto. — Will you, fair sister, 
Go with the princes, or stay here with us ? 

Queen Isabel 
Our gracious brother, I will go with them ; 
Haply a woman's voice may do some good, 
When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on. 

King Henry 
Yet leave our cousin Katherine here with us ; 
She is our capital demand, compris'd 
Within the fore-rank of our articles. 

Queen Isabel 
She hath good leave. 

(Exeunt all excepting King Henry, the Princess, and 
Alice, who stand Left Centre, up near window-seat.} 

King Henry {Centre) 

Fair Katherine, and most fair ! 
(Katherine and Lady Alice curtsey low) 
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms, 
Such as will enter at a lady's ear, 
And plead his love suit to her gentle heart? 

C.C 1 ) Declare our acceptance. (2) Profitable. 
(^6) 



Act Five : The First Scene 

Katherine {Left Centre) 

Your majesty shall mock at me ; I cannot speak 
your England. 

King Henry 

fair Katherine, if you will love me soundly with 
your French heart, I will be glad to hear you con- 
fess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you 
like me, Kate ? 

Katherine 

Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell vat is — like me. 

King Henry 

An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like an 
angel. 

Katherine 

Que dit-il ? que je suis semblable a les anges ? 

Alice (Left) 
Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il. 

King Henry 

1 said so, dear Katherine ; and I must not blush 
to affirm it. 

Katherine 

O bon Dieu ! les langues des hommes sont pleines 
de tromperies. 

(She comes forward to her chair, Left Centre) 

King Henry 

What says she, fair one*? that the tongues of men 
are full of deceits ? 

(107) 



King Henry the Fifth 

Alice {up at Left Centre curtseys low) 
Oui, dat the tongues of de mans is be full of de- 
ceits : dat is de princess. 

King Henry 
The princess is the better Englishwoman. P faith, 
Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding : I am 
glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if 
thou couldst, thou wouldst find me such a plain 
king that thou wouldst think I had sold my farm 
to buy my crown. I know no ways to mince it 
in love, but directly to say ' I love you.' Give me 
your answer ; i' faith, do : and so clap hands and a 
bargain: how say you, lady 1 ? 

Katherine 
Sauf votre honneur, me understand veil. 

King Henry 
Marry, if you would put me to verses or to 
dance for your sake, Kate, why you undid me. If 
I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into 
my saddle with my armour on my back, under the 
correction of bragging be it spoken, I should quickly 
leap into a wife. Or if I might buffet (1) for my love, 
or bound my horse for her favours, I could lay on 
like a butcher and sit like a jack-an-apes, never off. 
But, before God, Kate, I cannot look greenly nor 
gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning in 
protestation; only downright oaths, which I never 
use till urged, nor never break for urging. If thou 
canst love a fellow of this temper, Kate, whose face 
is not worth sunburning, that never looks in his 
glass for love of anything he sees there, let thine 
eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain soldier : If 

C(i) Box. 
(108) 



Act Five : The First Scene 

thou canst love me for this, take me : if not, to say 
to thee — that I shall die, is true : but — for thy love, 
by the Lord, no; yet I love thee too. And while 
thou livest, dear Kate, take a fellow of plain and 
uncoined constancy ;(i) for he perforce must do 
thee right, because he hath not the gift to woo in 
other places: for these fellows of infinite tongue, 
that can rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, they 
do always reason themselves out again. What ! a 
speaker is but a prater ; a rhyme is but a ballad. A 
good leg will fall (2); a straight back will stoop; a 
black beard will turn white ; a curled pate will grow 
bald; a fair face will wither; a full eye will wax 
hollow ; but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the 
moon ; or, rather the sun, and not the moon ; for it 
shines bright, and never changes, but keeps his 
course truly. If thou wouldst have such a one, take 
me; and take me, take a soldier; take a soldier, 
take a king. And what sayest thou then to my 
love ? Speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. 

Katherine 
Is it possible dat I should love de enemy of 
France *? 

King Henry 
No; it is not possible you should love the ene- 
my of France, Kate : but in loving me, you should 
love the friend of France ; for I love France so well 
that I will not part with a village of it; I will 
have it all mine : and, Kate, when France is mine, 
and I am yours, then yours is France, and you are 
mine. 

Katherine 
I cannot tell vat is dat. 

C(i) That is like a plain piece of metal, that has not yet received any 
impression. (2) Grow thin. 

(109) 



King Henry the Fifth 

King Henry 

No, Kate *? I will tell thee in French ; which, I 
am sure, will hang upon my tongue like a new-mar- 
ried wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be 
shook off. Quand j'ai la possession de France, et 
quand vous avez la possession de moi (let me see, 
what then '? Saint Dennis( 1 ) be my speed ! ) — done 
votre est France, et vous etes mienne. It is as easy 
for me, Kate, to conquer the kingdom as to speak 
so much more French : I shall never move thee in 
French, unless it be to laugh at me. 

Katherine 

Sauf votre honneur, le Francois que vous parlez 
est meilleur que 1 Anglois lequel je parle. 

King Henry 

No, 'faith, is't not, Kate: but thy speaking of 
my tongue, and I thine, must needs be granted to 
be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou understand 
thus much English ? Canst thou love me ? 

Katherine 
I cannot tell. 

King Henry 

Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? I'll ask 
them. Come, I know thou lovest me: and at 
night, when you come into your closet, you'll ques- 
tion this gentlewoman about me; and I know, 
Kate, you will to her dispraise those parts in me 
that you love with your heart: but, good Kate, 
mock me mercifully; the rather, gentle princess, 
because I love thee cruelly. How answer you, la 

C(i) Patron saint of France. 
(^9) 



Act Five : The First Scene 

plus belle Katherine du monde, mon tres-chere et 
divine deesse ? 

Katherine 

Your majeste, ave fausse French enough to de- 
ceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France. 

King Henry 

Now, fie upon my false French ! By mine 
honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate. Now, 
beshrew my father's ambition ! he was thinking of 
civil wars ; therefore was I created with a stubborn 
outside, with an aspect of iron, that, when I come 
to woo ladies, I fright them. But, in faith, Kate, 
the elder I wax, the better I shall appear : and 
therefore tell me, most fair Katherine, will you 
have me "? Put off your maiden blushes; avouch the 
thoughts of your heart with the looks of an em- 
press ; take me by the hand, and say — " Harry of 
England, I am thine : " which word thou shall no 
sooner bless mine ear withal but I will tell thee aloud 
— England is thine, Ireland is thine, France is thine 
and Henry Plantagenet is thine ; who, though I 
speak it before his face, if he be not fellow with the 
best King, thou shalt find the best King of good 
fellows. Come, your answer in broken music ; for 
thy voice is music, and thy English broken. Wilt 
thou have me? 

Katherine 

Dat is as it shall please de roi mon pere. 

King Henry 

Nay, it will please him well, Kate ; it shall please 
him, Kate. 
_. _ 



King Henry the Fifth 

Katherine 
Den it shall also content me. 

King Henry 
Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you my 
queen. {Kneels to kiss the Princess' hand?) 

Katherine {timidly drawing away, Left) 
Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez; ma foi, 
je ne veux point que vous abbaissez votre grandeur, 
en baisant la main d'une votre indigne serviteure ; 
excuzez-moi, je vous supplie, mon tres puissant 
seigneur. 

King Henry 
Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. 

Katherine 
Les dames, et demoiselles,, pour etre baissees de- 
vant leur noces, il n'est pas le coutume de France. 

King Henry 
Madam my interpreter, what says she ? 

Alice {who has crossed to Right Centre front) 

Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of 
France, — {curtseys) I cannot tell what is baiser, en 
English. 

King Henry 
To kiss. 

Alice {curtseys) ; 
Your majesty entendre bettre que moi. 

King Henry 
It is not the fashion for the maids in France to 
kiss before they are married, would she say ? 

(^0 



Act Five : The Second Scene 

Alice 
Oui, vraiment. (Curtseys.} 

King Henry 
O Kate, nice customs curt'sy to great kings. 
Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined within 
the weak list (1) of a country's fashion. We are the 
makers of manners, Kate ; and the liberty that fol- 
lows our places stops the mouth of all find-faults (2) ; 
as I will do yours, for upholding the nice fashion of 
your country in denying me a kiss: therefore, pa- 
tiently and yielding. (Kissing her.} You have 
witchcraft in your lips, Kate : there is more eloquence 
in a sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the 
French council; and they should sooner persuade 
Harry of England than a general petition of mon- 
archs {about to kiss her again). Here comes your 
father. 

The SECOND Scene 



(I'royes, from the Bridge) 



{[Enter Captain Gower and Fluellen from Left. 
Fluellen wears a leek in his cap. 

Gower (Left) 
Nay, that's right ; but why wear you your leek 
to-day ? Saint Davy's day is past. (3) 

Fluellen (Right) 

There is occasions and causes why and wherefore 

in all things : I will tell you, as my friend, Captain 

Gower : the rascally, scald, (4) beggarly, lousy, prag- 

ging knave, Pistol, — he is come to me, and prings me 

C(i) Boundary. (2) Fault-finders. (3) St. David's Day is March I. 
The leek is the national Welsh emblem. (4) Scurvy, with diseased scalp. 

("3) " 



King Henry the Fifth 

pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat 
my leek ; it was in a place where I could not breed 
no contentions with him ; but I will be so pold as 
to wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and 
then I will tell him a little piece of my desires. 

^[Enter Pistol from Right 

GOWER 

Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock. 
Fluellen 
'Tis no matter for his swellings, nor his turkey- 
cocks. — (Going toward Pistol.) Got pless you, 
ancient Pistol ! you scurvy, lousy knave, Got pless 
you! 

Pistol 
Ha ! art thou Bedlam ? dost thou thirst, base 

Trojan, 
To have me fold up Parca's (1) fatal web? 
Hence ! I am qualmish at the smell of leek. 

Fluellen {takes leek from his. cap and shakes it under 
Pistol's nose) 
I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, at 
my desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to 
eat, look you, this leek ; because, look you, you do 
not love it, nor your affections, and your appetites, 
and your digestions, does not agree with it, I would 
desire you to eat it. 

Pistol 
Not for Cadwallader (2) and all his goats. 

Fluellen 
There is one goat for you. 

(Strikes him to his knees.) 

C(i) The Parcae were the Fates. The meaning of the line is " Dost 
thou wish me to put thee to death ? " (2) Last of the Welsh Kings. 

(114) 



Act Five : The Second Scene 

Will you be so goot, scald knave, as eat it ? 

{Forces leek into Pistol's mouth.) 

Pistol (Centre) 
Base Trojan, thou shalt die. 

Fluellen (Right Centre) 

You say, very true, scald knave, when Heaven's 
will is ; I will desire you to live in the mean time, 
and eat your victuals ; come, there is sauce for it. 
(Striking him again.) You called me yesterday, 
mountain-squire, but I will make to-day a squire of 
low degree. (Strikes.) I pray you, fall to, if you can 
mock a leek, you can eat a leek. 

Gower (Left Centre) 
Enough, captain ; you have astonished ( 1 ) him. 

Fluellen 
I say, I will make him eat some part of my leek, 
or I will peat his pate four days : Bite, I pray you ; 
it is goot for your green wound, and your ploody 
coxcomb. 

Pistol 
Must I bite *? 

Fluellen 
Yes, certainly; and out of doubt and out of 
questions, too, and ambiguities. (Strikes,) 

Pistol 
By this leek, I will most horribly revenge. (Fore- 
seeing another blow from Fluellen's cudgel.) I eat — 
and yet I swear. 

Fluellen 
Eat, I pray you : will you have some more sauce 

C(i) Dr Johnson claims this is the pugilistic sense of the word astonish, 
that is, stunned. 

(US) 



King Henry the Fifth 

to your leek % (Strikes} there is not enough leek to 
swear by. 

Pistol 
Quiet thy cudgel ; thou dost see, I eat." 

Fluellen 
Much goot do you, scald knave, heartily. Nay, 
pray you, throw none away, the skin is goot for 
your proken coxcomb. When you take occasions 
to seek leeks hereafter, I pray you mock at 'em ; 
that is all. {Going, Left.) 

Pistol 
Good. 

Fluellen 
Ay, leeks is goot: — (Returns?) Hold you, there 
is a groat to heal your pate. (Offers coin.) 

Pistol 
Me a groat ! 

Fluellen 
Yes, verily, and in truth you shall take it; or I 
have another leek in my pocket, which you shall 
eat. 

Pistol 

I take thy groat, in earnest of revenge. 
Fluellen 
If I owe you anything I will pay you in cudgels. 
(Shakes cudgel under Pistol's nose.) Heaven be wi' 
you, and keep you, and heal your pate. 

(Strikes again. Exit with Gower, Left.) 

Pistol (draws sword with a growl and a flourish, 

mightily bold) 
All hell shall stir for this. 

(He struts boldly off, but, perceiving Fluellen, lowers 
his sword and runs in the opposite direction.) 

("6) 



Act Five : The Third Scene 

The THIRD Scene 

(Interior of the Cathedral at Troyes. Ceremony of 
the Espousal of King Henry and the Princess 
Katherine. (l) ) 

Right and left outside the chancel screen stand French 
and English nobles. Enter the surpliced choir of boys and 
men, singing, They march into the chancel and dispose 
themselves either side of the altar. Following the choir, 
crucifers and thurifers, come three Archbishops in full 
canonicals, The ecclesiastics ascend the steps of the high 
altar. 'The French King leads in the Princess 
Katherine in her bridal robes, the train borne by six 
pages of Valois in pure white. The Duke of Bur- 
gundy escorts Queen Isabel, followed by Lady Alice, 
the French Court and attendants. They dispose them- 
selves without the chancel on the left. King Henry, 
preceded by eight pages of Lancaster, enters from the 
opposite side. The English nobles in full armour follow 
him, and dispose themselves outside the chancel on the 
right. King Henry advances to the foot of the altar 
and genuflects to receive the prelates'' blessing. He re- 
turns and leads the Princess Katherine to the foot of 
the altar. They and all kneel while the Archbishop of 
Sens blesses them. The choir breaks forth into a joyous 
Gloria. 

( Curtain.} 

The End of the Fifth Act 



C(i) On the morrow of Trinity-day the King of England espoused her 
in the parish church near to where he was lodged. Great pomp and 
magnificence were displayed by him and his prince, as if he were at that 
moment King of all the world. — Monstrelet. 

Tyn) 



Notes on the Heraldry 
of King Henry V 

By Alfred J. Rodwaye, F.R.H.S. 





O thoroughness in mounting Henry V. 
could be approximated without a de- 
tailed attention to the heraldry. It is a 
war play of mediaeval England, when 
nobles entered the peaceful lists of the 
tournament or the martial lists of war 
in full heraldic equipment. Individual 
devices and bearings early became so 
popular and consequently so intricate 
that a college of heraldry was instituted, which has since 
been the arbiter as well as the repository of the science. 
'T'his was composed of three kings, six heralds, and four 
poursuivants. It was indeed under King Henry V. that 
the heralds first acted in their collegiate capacity, and 
heraldry was recognised as an exact science. 

No official heraldic data exist of that period of English 
history prior to the reign of Henry V. tfhe well-known 
Rolls of Battle and Caerlaverock, invaluable as they are, 
contain many apocryphal blazons, and therefore monu- 
ments, seals, ancient missals, etc., have been resorted to in 
order to obtain the correct armorials of the notables rep- 



(121) 



Heraldry of King Henry the Fifth 

resented in the play. In the Middle Ages heraldry en- 
tered into all branches of art, civil, military, and ecclesi- 
astic, and was indeed practically essential. tfhe Baron 
had his surcoat, shield, and banner emblazoned with his 
ancestral Arms. His servitors f considered unworthy to 
bear Arms J were apparelled in the livery-colours and 
wore their "Lord's crest embroidered upon their sleeves. 

In those days, when few of the laity could read and 
write, heraldry was the only means of identification and 
recognition, and zve read of King Henry V. sending his 
Herald f William Bruges, afterwards first Garter King 
at Arms J with his assistants over the battle-field of Agin- 
court to examine the shields and report the names and 
quality of the dead. 1?o read the blazons of the dead 
warriors would be as an open book to those versed in the 
science. 

It must not be supposed that the designs or charges 
have no meaning. Each blazon presented in the play has 
some reference to the past history of the family it repre- 
sents, tfhe armorials of Beauchamp of Warwick, De 
Fere of Oxford, Neville, Roos, tfalbot, Cornwall, Robsart, 
et al., are each in themselves unwritten records. I'hey 
refer to some deed of valour or piety of long ago, now 
only known to the initiated. Although most of the families 
have perished off the earth, their sculptured shields still 
bear silent testimony in out-of-the-way places, ruined 
castles, abbeys, etc. 

The English Royal Badges used in the play are 
the White Swan of the De Bohuns, the Gorged Antelope, 
the Root of Bedford, the Foxtail, and the single Ostrich 
Feather f progenitor of the Prince of Wales' plume J. 
Each has its historical significance and was worn sus- 
pended from a collar of repeated SS. of fine metal or 
embroidery, tfhe Order of the Garter was represented at 
this period by the simple pale-blue garter with the legend 
" Honi soit qui mal y pense," worn around the left 

(12 2) 



Heraldry of King Henry the Fifth 

leg and embroidered upon the robe. The collar, star, and 
pendant zuere added at a later date. 

The Royal Arms of England used by Henry V. 
were emblazoned France f modern J and England quar- 
terly. This arrangement was continued until the death 
of Elizabeth, when the accession of James I. necessitated 
the introduction of the Scottish Lion to the Regal Armory. 
'The shield shown suspended over King Henry V's tomb 
at West?ninster Abbey has long since been proven entirely 
French-Navarrese in character, and, as it is known the 
trophies were removed to the Tower during Cromwellian 
-times it is highly probable that in the confusion the wrong 
ones were replaced. 

The Crown of England underwent a complete tran- 
sition during this reign. The beautiful " Harry Crown " 
depicted upon the tomb of Henry W. at Canterbury was 
broken up and pledged to provide funds for the French 
campaign, and King Henry F., upon his return from 
France and on the advice of his guest, the Emperor Sig- 
ismund, adopted an imperial or arched crown surmounted 
by the ball and cross. This was effected by merely arch- 
ing the circlet of crosses, patees, a?id feurs-de-lys worn 
by the King around his steel bascinet. In the centre of 
the circlet was the famous Black Ruby of Edward the 
Black Prince, — still the most prized gem in Britain's 
diadem. 

The Flags and Banners of various shapes and 
sizes form a most interesting and decorative feature in 
this revival of King Henry V. The Pennon was a 
swallow-tailed pendant from a lance charged with ar- 
morial devices. The Banner, and its diminutive, the 
Banneret, was square in form, charged only with the coat- 
armour of the bearer. The Standard was of large di- 
mensions, charged with the owner's arms, badges, and 
livery colours. In addition to the regal and noble banners, 
the English, during this campaign, always carried their 

(123) 



Heraldry of King Henry the Fifth 

sacred colours, the banners of the trinity, St. George, St. 
Edmund, and St. Edward. 

The Heraldry of France, ozving to the continual 
change of dynasty and recreation of titles, and considering 
that every vestige of royalty and aristocracy was swept 
away during the Revolution, has been most difficult to 
obtain. France modern, viz., " three golden fleurs-de-lys 
upon a blue field? was the arms of Charles V\., and was 
borne with various differences by all the Princes of the 
blood, — Burgundy, Orleans, Bourbon, Alengon, et al. 
'The Dauphin, or Heir Apparent, quartered the arms of 
France with those of his own appanage, as Dauphin of 
Vienne, a blue dolphin on a gold shield. Former produc- 
tions of this play have assigned the Order of St. Esprit to 
the French, and the well-known Golden Fleece to the Bur- 
gundians. As a matter of fact, they were not instituted 
until some years after the date of the play. The Orders 
used in Mr. Mansfield's production are those of the Corse 
de Genest or broom-plant, founded by St. Louis in 1234, 
and the Order of the Cockle Shell and St. Michael. The 
regalia ( crown, sceptres, etc. J are copied from the seals 
of the period and other sources in the Louvre. In addi- 
tion to the other banners of the French Noblesse, that 
famous piece of red taffeta, known as the Oriflamme, or 
sacred standard of France flong religiously kept at St. 
Denis and supposed to be of miraculous origin J, is de- 
picted in the play. It was unfurled only in times of 
great national peril, and after many vicissitudes the his- 
toric relic made its last appearance upon the battle-field 
of Agincourt. 




(124) 



Jan - 17 10O1 



